Arshad Warsi laughs as reporter calls Bachchhan Paandey a ‘success’, says ‘don’t lie, it’s not’
When Arshad Warsi talks, expect him to be nothing less than candid. Recently, Arshad was spotted in Bengaluru to launch a coffee shop. There, in a media interaction, he was asked to comment about his last film Bachchhan Paandey, starring Akshay Kumar. The film wasn’t able to cross the Rs 50 crore mark in one week.
The reporter called the film’s performance at the box office “a success.” Arshad chuckled and quipped, “Don’t lie, it is not a success.” He then continued, “It was a good film, but unfortunately it happened, some things work, some things don’t. I feel it just went through a bad patch, there were various things that made it not as successful as it should have been. It is a big film, it should’ve made a lot more money, but it is still not a loss, it covered it’s money.”
When he was further probed if the film’s underperformance was because of the boom in OTT releases, Arshad said, “No, I don’t think it is the OTT effect. Okay, I’ve got an answer for that, but I’m not going to say it. Lets not get into it, it is a different space.”
In a recent interview with Hindustan Times, Akshay Kumar had admitted that Bachchhan Paandey’s performance at the box office was affected the sustained success of The Kashmir Files. He’d said, “Firstly, let me tell you I am elated with the success that The Kashmir Files has seen. It tells you the power of cinema and that there is no formula of starting budgets and films of a certain way that guarantee success. It proves that the audiences are who we make our films for and when they lap up something it just flies. Yes, I would have liked Bachchhan Paandey to better than what it is doing but not once do I blame the Kashmir files for it. That film is a storm and we came in the eye of it.”
Arshad also shared an update on the next season of his streaming show Asur. He said, “Asur is releasing now, in June or July. I find Asur 2 more exciting and thrilling than Asur 1. When people liked season 1, 2 they’ll love, which means 3 might also happen.”
