One of Bollywood’s biggest household names, Akshay Kumar, has given us insane hits and his latest, ‘Laxmii’ was Disney+ Hotstar’s biggest opener.
For his next, Akshay Kumar will be reuniting with his Bell Bottom team including father-son producer duo Jackky and Vashu Bhagnani.
As per a Bollywood Hungama report, Akshay Kumar will be paid over INR 100 crores for this film. “They have been discussing this comedy ever since Bell Bottom went on the floors and Akshay was fascinated by the one line idea of this whacky family comedy. He loved the script following which they got into discussing the financial prospects of the film. And like Bell Bottom, Akshay Kumar will be paid a massive fat amount in excess of Rs 100 crores for this film.”
The source from whom the information was obtained added that the production budget of the film will be anywhere between 35 to 45 crore, taking the total cost of production inclusive of Akshay’s fees closer to Rs 150 crore.
“It’s a safe business model as Akshay will finish the film in a record time of just 45 days. While he is paid almost Rs 2 crore per day of shoot, the recovery model of Rs 150 crore is also not as difficult. The film, being a comedy, will fetch a reasonable chunk from ancillary sources, recovering more than half the investment from just satellite, digital and music rights. Akshay and comedy is a formidable genre on television and he is also slowly picking up an audience base for his comedy on digital platforms too. This will fetch him a good amount and the recovery from theatrical will have to be barely anywhere between Rs 50 to 60 crore, which means a breakeven point at box-office collections of Rs 120 crore,” the source adds.
The source also mentions, “Its low risk business model, and considering the economics, at worst the makers will breakeven with limited theatrical business. Akshay is slowly becoming the emperor of churning out budget films with high returns. He fills his pockets and also ensures that more often than not, the producers too mint the money, until and unless it’s a case of an outright bad script. He has opted the smart way of working thereby not burdening his film with the pressure of getting into the rat race of box-office collections.“
The film will reportedly start shooting the next year around the month of July and the release date is supposedly around 2022.