An Action Hero: Jaideep Ahlawat opens up on his film’s box office failure, says ‘aadat thodi kam pad gayi hai…’

Starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Jaideep Ahlawat in the lead roles, An Action Hero was released in the theatres on December 2. Despite getting extremely positive reviews from the audiences and critics, the film failed at the box office and could collect only Rs 10.52 crore in two weeks, as per Bollywood Hungama.

Jaideep Ahlawat played the Haryanvi cop named Bhoora Solanki who is pitted against Ayushmann Khurrana playing a superstar named Maanav Khuranna in the comedy thriller that marked the directorial debut of Anirudh Iyer. In a recent interview, Jaideep opened up on the film’s poor performance at the box office.

Speaking to Film Companion, the Raazi actor said, “After a film’s failure there is some introspection about what might have gone wrong with the film? It’s getting almost unanimously positive reviews, but people aren’t going to the theatres to watch it. It’s slightly disheartening and not a feeling anyone likes to soak in. It’s the hard work of so many people, so it’s obviously not a nice feeling.”

“It’s a smart film, it is fast-paced, it has humour, it has action. Anyone who has seen it has only said nice things to me about the film, so it can get a little confusing when people at large don’t come to watch the film. But it’s okay. It’s a phase, sometimes it pans out and sometimes it doesn’t. No point beating oneself for it. I think as a society we’re still not at the point where we’re going to the theatres like we used to, in the pre-pandemic times. I think aadat thodi kam padh gayi hai (we’re less used to it). It’s my personal theory, but hopefully, this phase ends and we tide through it”, the actor concluded.

READ | An Action Hero: Ayushmann Khurrana hopes strong word of mouth will lead to more people coming to theatres

Meanwhile, Jaideep will be seen next in the Hindi film adaptation of Keigo Higashino’s novel The Devotion of Suspect X. Directed by Sujoy Ghosh, the upcoming film stars Kareena Kapoor Khan and Vijay Varma in the leads and will be released directly on the streaming platform Netflix.