Akshay’s Joker Fit

There’s a nasty rumour going around that Akshay Kumar’s reasons for abandoning Joker at the promotions stage might have had nothing to do with what he thought of the film after all. You might remember the actor’s camp was busy attributing his unwillingness to participate in the film’s marketing and promotions to the fact that he was disappointed with what director Shirish Kunder had made of the film. But insiders are saying that’s far from the truth.

Come to think of it, Akshay has been involved in several lousy films during the course of his career, and yet he’s sportingly supported them and promoted them. It’s unlikely he thought Joker was much worse than films like Thank You, Action Replayy or Kambakkht Ishq. Turns out his differences with Shirish and the director’s wife Farah Khan (a co-producer of Joker) might have been strictly over money matters.

According to the industry grapevine, despite having charged a sizeable acting fee, Akshay (who was also one of the producers on the film) was reportedly hoping to make a substantial sum overcharging UTV (the studio that had bought the film and was releasing it) for converting Joker into 3D. When the studio decided not to release the film in 3D, the star is believed to have thrown a fit and demanded that Shirish and Farah side with him on the issue. When, despite Akshay’s best efforts, the studio flatly refused to invest any more money in the project, the actor allegedly decided to get his revenge on Shirish and Farah by leaving them to promote the film without him.

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