SRK-Akshay battle is on

With Singh is Kinng up for release, Shah Rukh Khan’s insecurity comes to the fore once again; will the action king defeat King Khan at the box office this time around?

SUCCESS HASN’T come easy for Akshay Kumar. And just when he seems to have his hand on the top rung of the ladder, somebody ‘very big’ appears to be pulling him down.

Recently, all of Akshay’s friends received one nasty text on their mobiles.

It reads: “Tashan flopped miserably and Akshay is doing all behind the scene maneuvering to maintain his market price.

First Singh is Kinng audio rights deal was inflated heavily involving two corporates and its mobile rights were then acquired by another corporate again at inflated unheard of price and today someone claimed in a Press ad that it has sold 500,000 MC & CD in merely four weeks. Can someone tell him that even his last hits like Welcome, Heyy Baby, Namaste London, Bhool Bhulaiyaa have not even crossed 200,000 MC & CD since release.

Why is he (Kumar) so desperate, can someone ask him please...”

Though one can’t say it with certainty, fingers are pointing towards the Shah Rukh Khan camp famous for their whisper campaigns.

Earlier, at the peak of success Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Salman Khan have all been victims of the Khan coterie’s gossip.

The reason why this camp is suspect is due to the fact that Akshay and Shah Rukh are to meet at the box-office come this Diwali. Plus the fact that Akshay’s Singh is Kinng is hyped as the biggest release around the corner and people insist that he is in the process of taking over the mantle of king from the Khan. Not by force but by Kumar’s sheer box-office draw.

In fact, the two have reality shows on TV, where Akshay seems to be winning the race. If Shah Rukh has esteemed ministers and stars appearing on his Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass se Tez Hain?, Akshay’s Fear Factor – Khatron ke Khiladi has upped the TRPs of the new channel Colors. The ratings of Paanchvi Pass have dipped considerably since the advent of Salman Khan’s Dus Ka Dum and now Khatron Ke Khiladi.

But this Diwali, pits Akshay’s Chandni Chowk to China against Shah Rukh’s Billoo Barber. Both films are slated for an October 22 release with neither maker willing to postpone their release dates.

Quite unnoticed earlier, both actors have been clashing at the box-office and often with release dates since 2004. Along with Shah Rukh’s Veer- Zaara was Akshay’s Aitraaz.

Both films did decent business way back then.

In 2005, while Akshay had a hit in Waqt – The Race Against Time, Shah Rukh’s only release of the year was Paheli, a miserable flop.

In the year 2006, Shah Rukh took his place at the box-office first with Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna and then brought up the end of the year with the hit, Don.

But Akshay wasn’t to be outdone and had big and successful releases like Humko Deewana Kar Gaye, Bhagam Bhag, Phir Hera Pheri and Jaane Mann.

There was also a box-office war when Don and Jaane Mann released almost simultaneously and the Khan camp apparently tried to sabotage the release of this Sajid Nadiadwala film. Shah Rukh held a party for his book release on the same day as Sajid’s premiere night, and all the big stars who didn’t want to displease the Khan, went to SRK’s launch instead.

Shah Rukh brought in the year 2007 with one of the biggest hits, YashRaj’s Chak De . . .India and definitely took the end of the year as well, with the super success of Om Shanti Om.

But quietly along the sidelines, Akshay’s popularity grew with his hits of the year-Namaste London, Welcome and Bhool Bhulaiya. But apparently, Shah Rukh did not consider Akshay a threat last year, and the latter even obliged with a cameo in SRK’s Om Shanti Om! It is 2008 however, that stresses on the real power of Akshay Kumar. Entering Shah Rukh’s favourite camp, YashRaj Films, Akshay signed a film with them for the first time in his career-Tashan.

Though the film flopped there wasn’t a single critic who didn’t admit that Akshay with his character of Bachchan Pandey, was the only saving grace of Tashan.

Now we await his Singh is Kinng and Chandni Chowk to China alongside Shah Rukh’s Billoo Barber. So far, this year, Shah Rukh has been missing from the boxoffice except for making an appearance in the title song of Raakesh Roshan’s Krazzy Four.

The clash of these two actors does not end with Diwali however and goes on towards December as well.

Slated around the same time for release is YashRaj’s Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi with Shah Rukh and Sajid Nadiadwala’s Kambakht Ishq.

If the Khan can boast of a YashRaj release, Akshay has an international feather in his cap, shooting alongside Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. If YashRaj is pulling out all the stops to make their film the best, it being shot at their state of the art studio in Mumbai, Sajid Nadiadwala has gone all the way to Hollywood and shot at Universal Studios! Meanwhile, it doesn’t seem like Akshay will bow down to the pulling down pressure of the Khan camp.

He has always been known as a lone wolf who takes his own risks which are parallel to his stunts – the more daring, the better!

• City Times