Lights, Camera, Scoop: The Fawad Khan Crisis, Akshay Kumar's 'Naag,' and The 'Kesari 2' Budget Equation

Which Naag Are You?

It was a wild week for creatures (and creators). While in Hollywood, a new Godzilla film was put in motion, closer home, a fantasy spectacle around a cobra was announced: Naagzilla.

The Dharma Productions- Mahavir Jain-backed creature comedy dropped its motion poster with Kartik Aaryan in the lead, but those in the know say that the Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 star wasn't the first choice.

The project had first gone to Akshay Kumar, who had even met the makers. While the idea excited him, Kumar had some reservations about doing the film at this stage in his career. Once he bowed out, talks began with Aaryan.

Amusingly, Naagzilla ended up as yet another project to have a crisscross between Kumar and Aaryan. The latter led the Bhool Bhulaiyaa franchise (originally starring Kumar and Vidya Balan) and was also confirmed to star in Hera Pheri 3 by his co-star Paresh Rawal. The third instalment is now back on track with Kumar— the OG Raju.

The Fault in Our Stars

The latest rumour on the block is that a new series featuring Fawad Khan has been scrapped by a streamer owing to the current geopolitical landscape between India and Pakistan. But a lot more has happened involving Khan.

Almost a decade after his last big screen appearance in a Hindi film, the Pakistani star was looking forward to his Bollywood comeback with the romantic comedy Abir Gulaal. The film, co-starring Vaani Kapoor, was announced to have a theatrical release on May 9— but that won't be happening now.

While the initial industry buzz was that the makers were planning to skip an India release altogether—amid outrage by Indian film associations and political parties regarding Pakistani artists—the film has now been caught in a political storm.

The recent terror attack in Pahalgam, which claimed 26 lives and left several injured, means that the film will not be hitting the big screens, as was intended earlier.

However, much before the devastating attack took place, some industry insiders claimed that the Abir Gulaal makers were anyway testing the waters to see how India reacts to Khan's comeback, and if there was any world in which he could be seen on the big screen, without any protests.

Of course, soon after the teaser was dropped, film associations cited the 2016 unofficial ban on Pakistani artists working in Indian films following the Uri attack in Jammu and Kashmir, and launched fresh boycott calls. Though the outrage grew, there were also independent Indian origin producers, not based out of the country, who were keenly watching how the film's release would unfold.

The idea was that if Abir Gulaal, by some stroke of fortune and political climate, managed to have a relatively smooth release, it would open the doors for more such cross-country big-screen collaborations. However, since the Pahalgam attack, any interest in casting Khan for an Indian title has again hit a major roadblock, sources in the know said.

There are also rumours that Khan was working on a new series, which was gearing up to stream on an Indian OTT giant, but that has since been scrapped. The truth, however, is that the project in question has been stuck in a limbo for a long time—way before any of the recent developments— due to production infighting, and has nothing to do with India's relation with Pakistan.

What's Your Budget?

What is common between a Sunny Deol actioner, an Akshay Kumar historical and a Ryan Coogler-directed period vampire film? The conversation in the trade was all about the (high) production costs of the three films.

Sinners and Kesari 2 released on the same Friday, April 18. The Hindi film, set in the aftermath of Jallianwala Bagh, opened to good word-of-mouth and has been a decent success at the box-office netting around ₹46 crore in seven days. The collections, however, need to be taken into context.

Trade sources have revealed that Kesari 2 was mounted on a budget of over ₹100 crore (with some estimating it to be around ₹140 crore). This is the second consecutive Hindi film where the budget was higher than what the market expected it to be—keeping in mind the genre and star cast—after Deol's Jaat, which was another film mounted on a cost upwards of ₹100 crore.

Both Jaat and Kesari 2 have appealed to their core audiences, with Deol firing in mass pockets whereas Kumar found success in urban centres, but perhaps that won't be enough as the movies are burdened by the budget.

"Both films have done good business. Kesari 2, being a drama, has found acceptance post-pandemic. The numbers will grow again this weekend, but when the budgets are taken into account, these films are not making a profit theatrically," a trade source said.

The same pattern was seen in Hollywood's recent outing Sinners, for which the domestic US total stands over $71.5 million, against a production cost reported to be around $90 to 105 million. Though the beginning of Sinners was solid for an original R-Rated horror film, many in Hollywood, including Matthew Belloni in his podcast The Town, noted the problem.

"With exception, the general assumption at the studios is that movies need to gross two and a half times their production budget to break even in theatres once the revenue is split with the cinema hall owners and the costs of marketing and distribution are factored in. That would put the Sinners' breakeven mark at around $250 million," Belloni mentioned.

However, Sinners has found better footing and is likely to draw higher numbers worldwide as it chugs along. For Jaat and Kesari 2, the lifetime haul look to be in the range of ₹80 to 85 crore, as of now.