Akshay Kumar is known to be one of the highest-paid stars in Hindi cinema and in a recent interview, one of his former producers, Shailendra Singh, described him as a “money-minded” person who is “a businessman first and an actor second.” Shailendra produced films like Dor, Page 3, Malaamaal Weekly, among many others, and with Akshay produced a film called 8 x 10 Tasveer, directed by Nagesh Kukunoor. Shailendra claimed that he lost 85 crores with this film, and when he did He asked Akshay to return a portion of his fees.Since the film had been a total failure at the box office, the actor refused. Shailendra said he stopped making films after that.
‘Akshay Kumar refused to refund fee after film flops’
In a chat with Siddharth Kannan on his YouTube channel, Shailendra said that Akshay was a “lovely guy” and they often played sports together, so when he got the chance to do a film with the actor, he jumped at the chance. Remember that Nagesh was becoming famous with Iqbal and Dor, and Akshay was also interested in doing the film as he liked the subject, but things went crazy soon after.
‘The film was going to be shot in Munnar, because of Akshay we went to Canada’
Shailendra revealed that this was supposed to be a 30-35 crore film to be shot in Munnar, but they couldn’t stick to it as they had to adjust as per Akshay’s schedule. “Akshay was a very busy man. From Munnar we landed in Calgary (Canada). From there we landed in Cape Town (South Africa). We landed in many places,” he recalled, adding that this film was released after Akshay had a huge hit with Singh Is Kinng in 2008.
Shailendra claimed that he had introduced Singh Is Kinng to Akshay Kumar and the actor was immediately enthralled. He revealed the original plot of the film where a sardar from Punjab goes to the UK to bring back the Kohinoor and brings him back in his turban. He shared that it was going to be a heist movie and that he already had the title. “Akshay told me I was doing Tasveer for you, you let me do Singh is Kinng. I said accept it. They thanked me in the credits,” he shared.
As soon as 8 x 10 Tasveer was released, it “completely failed”, so Shailendra asked Akshay to return a portion of his fee. “I told Akshay, ‘Bro, no one came to see your film. You have to take some responsibility for this because you took a lot of money from me for this film,'” he shared and recalled that he didn’t get anything in return. “I stopped making movies after that,” he said.
‘Akshay Kumar is business-minded’
Shailendra also claimed that Akshay increases his dues slowly and makes sure he gets paid what he wants. “Akshay is a very nice guy, very sporty but very concerned about money. So Akshay has a strategy. Start slowly,” he said and gave an example with hypothetical figures. “First, he will take Rs 15 cr from you, then he will take you to Rs 21 cr, then Rs 21 cr will become Rs 27 cr, then he will talk about his lucky number 9, so if it is Rs 33 cr, it will go to Rs 36 cr casually,” he said and added, “He knows business. First he is a businessman and then an actor,” he said. Shailendra recalls paying Akshay Kumar Rs 9 crore for a song from his animated film Jumbo. “He managed to get Rs 9 cr from me to dance to a song,” he said.
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Shailendra said that after Singh is Kinng was released and became a hit, he wanted to bring back its title because in the sequel, the makers were not even using the same title. He had to sue the creators to get his title. “I didn’t let it go. I came back and asked for my title. I said now that you are done, that you have made money, now give me my title. They said no. I went to the director, he told me that Akshay has the title. So it was something like it is joint property. I sued them. I fought and got the title and now I have it,” he said, adding, “The decency to give me the title back was not there. I had to fight for it.” Shailendra said that when he wanted to do another film with Ranveer Singh, with the same title, “Akshay said, you can’t make a film, you can only make an OTT series.”
Shailendra also spoke about John Abraham and said that even he did not take any responsibility when his film Aashayein failed at the box office. “I went to John after Aashayein. He had received decent money and had done Aashayein at a time when he was breaking up with Bipasha. It was a very dark film, a palliative care film, a very intense film and it didn’t work at all, but he took his full fee. And I asked him if it is a social issue, please don’t take his full quote, but he did. After it flopped, I went to John,” he said and said that neither Akshay nor John returned any amount.
What Akshay has said about having a ‘money mindset’
This is not the first time that an accusation of ‘money mentality’ has been leveled against Akshay. In the past, while speaking on Aap Ki Adalat, he replied, “Agar paisa kamaya hai toh loot ke nahi kamaya. Maine kaam karke kamaya hai. 8 saal se I have been the biggest contributor (I have made money but not by stealing from someone. For the last 8 years I have been the highest taxpayer). Toh, it can’t be that I have a money mentality or anything like that. “Money is an important aspect in life, you have to be practical.”