Bollywood Khiladi Akshay Kumar tasted failures with back-to-back flops movies like Bachchhan Paandey, Samrat Prithviraj, and Raksha Bandhan. Though it has been compensated with the average reviews, excellent opening, and box office collections of his recent release Ram Setu, it seems Akki has plans to revive his golden days from the past.
As per the latest reports, following the consecutive debacle of his movies, the Khiladi star is planning to step into the comedy genre once again. If the latest reports are to be believed the ‘Gold’ star has plans to once again bring his most iconic bone-tickling characters onscreen.
Reportedly, the Khiladi will once again step into the shoes of his iconic characters like Raju from Hera Pheri, Rajiv from Welcome, and Guru Gulab Khatri from Awara Pagal Deewana. Associating with Firoz Nadiadwala, it seems, Akki has aims to once again rule at the box office.
“Over the years, Akshay Kumar and comedy have proved to be a lethal combo, and the actor has delivered few of the most iconic characters for Hindi cinema in this space, which have formed a part of pop culture too, Pinkvilla quoted a source close to development as saying.
Further, the source said, “Three of his many loved characters are Raju from Hera Pheri, Guru Gulab Khatri from Awara Pagal Deewana, and Rajiv from Welcome. Come 2023, and he will be revisiting these characters one after the other with Hera Pheri 3, Awara Pagal Deewana 2, and Welcome 3.”
“Akshay and Firoz have had multiple meetings over the last month, to get everything in place for these projects. The idea is to revive the three franchises and bring back the Hindi cinema audience in a big way. The three films fit the bill of post covid content, to create genuine excitement in the audience. The talks are on with three top directors (we will bring more on this soon), and we expect an official announcement on one of the three projects in the next few months,” the source was quoted as saying.
Notably, Akki reprised his role as Raju in Phir Hera Pheri, the sequel to Hera Pheri also starring Suniel Shetty and Paresh Rawal. On the other hand, 2007’s 'Welcome', also starring Katrina Kaif, Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor, and Paresh Rawal in major roles, is another successful movie. Though the movie was a hit at the box office, he was replaced by John Abraham in the sequel ‘Welcome Back’. However, Nana, Anil and Paresh reprised their roles in the sequel with some additional characters. However, in the action-comedy drama Awara Paagal Deewana as Guru Gulab Khatri, Akki played the serious character of a mafia with a hint of comedy.
Though Akki garnered popularity as the ‘action king’ and earned the nickname Khiladi with his serious actions and stunts, he stepped into the comedy genre after he failed multiple times to entice movie lovers with his action avatar. Magically, this move turned out to be a major step and he once again started enthralling the audience. With his bone-tickling characters in several other movies, Akki set a new identity in the industry.
The announcement of Hera Pheri 3 elated movie lovers. However, fans got disheartened after learning that Akshay was not a part of the third installment. Earlier the makers held a press meet in which it was learned that Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham came on board with the screen name Raju, though Paresh and Suniel reprised their roles. However, later the makers realized that Raju’s character was the soul of Hera Pheri and without Akshay, the movie would fail to impress the audience. Hence, Akki once again stepped in as Raju for Hera Pheri 3.
If the reports are anything to go by, the footfall of the Hindi movie audience at the theatres will see a spike. Moreover, this may work as a miracle for Bollywood as well as Akshay’s career.