For the past few days, Vashu and Jackky Bhagnani’s production house, Pooja Entertainment, has been making news over alleged non-payment of staff salaries and a whopping debt of 250 crores owed by the company. Amidst this, rumors surfaced that Akshay Kumar charged 165 crores for four films under the production house’s banner. However, producer Suneel Darshan claims that the amount is close to what Tiger Shroff received.
In an interview with Times Now, Suneel Darshan commented on the speculation around Akshay’s remuneration, saying, “I can’t comment since the figure mentioned by you seems inaccurate. That seems to be closer to Tiger Shroff’s price.” This raised the question: if Tiger received 165 crores for two films with the banner, ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’ and ‘Ganpath,’ then how much did Akshay receive? Given that he is senior to Tiger and signed four films with the banner, Darshan replied that he preferred to stay silent on that, but claimed that Vashu Bhagnani enjoyed his ‘Midas Touch’ phase during the 1990s when he collaborated with director David Dhawan for around half a dozen films.
Akshay Kumar starred in four films under the banner—‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan,’ ‘Mission Raniganj,’ ‘Bell Bottom,’ and ‘Cuttputli’—all of which proved to be commercial failures. Reflecting on this, Darshan said that even though Bhagnani’s construction venture is racking up profits, his films are not. He commented, “His migration to the UK in the past few years and availing of the handsome tax breaks lured him into wooing the two supposedly disciplined stars, Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff, for his half a dozen movies which seem to have misfired miserably.”
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Concluding his statement, Darshan said that now the production house will see its correction phase, which can get them back on track in the film industry “provided that the actions initiated are in the interests of the film industry at large rather than with a myopic view.”
Suneel Darshan’s comments come after crew members took to social media to reveal that the production house has withheld their salaries and rumors surfaced that Vashu Bhagnani is selling his office to pay a 250-crore debt. However, Vashu came forward to rebuff the claims and said that the building is undergoing redevelopment.
Set up in 1986, Pooja Entertainment is known for backing projects such as ‘Coolie no.1,’ ‘Biwi no.1,’ ‘Rangrezz,’ and ‘Jawaani Jaaneman.’ The banner’s last film was ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’ starring Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff.