After Laal Singh Chaddha, Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan was a disaster at the box office this year. Despite releasing during the festive time the film was a flop. The emotional drama featuring Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Pednekar battled hard to fetch the audience to theaters. Months later director Anand L Rai opened up on the failure of Raksha Bandhan.
In a new interview with PTI, Aanand L Rai revealed why Raksha Bandhan failed. He said, “I was wrong while making Raksha Bandhan when I thought let me give them something which is more of India and let me cater to the audience in the B and C tier cities. I was wrong in differentiating between the audiences. That is not my job. I should have focused more on the story rather than selecting the audience to whom I want to cater.”
The filmmaker further added, “This is my learning from the film. We are trying to find out what story will engage the audience at this moment and in this phase. Post-pandemic we have failed the audience with that. Maybe, I went too smart with Raksha Bandhan. I was trying to put it in a bracket and that’s what went wrong. It was my fastest film but I relished it. I never made this film in a rush. I had fun. I was always gutsy and never played safe. But I think subconsciously I tried to do that with Raksha Bandhan and failed miserably. I learned that I should keep on doing my work, without thinking of the box office.”
Raksha Bandhan was released in theaters on 11th August 2022 which marks the same occasion as the Indian festival. The family entertainer stars Sadia Khateeb, Deepika Khanna, Smrithi Srikanth, and Sahejmeen Kaur as the sisters of Akshay Kumar whereas Bhumi Pednekar plays his love interest. It has been directed by Aanand L Rai and produced under the banners of Zee Studios, Colour Yellow Productions, and Cape Of Good Films.
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