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A new director for Akshay Kumar’s Laxmmi Bomb?

Raghava announced his exit from the film being produced by Akshay, Shabina Khan and Tusshar.

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Raghava Lawrence and Akshay Kumar in a picture the former shared online; The film’s poster that Akshay shared
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It was barely three weeks ago that Laxmmi Bomb, the Hindi remake of the hit Tamil horror comedy, Kanchana, went on floors. While the announcement of Akshay Kumar reprising the role essayed by director Raghava Lawrence in the original piqued everyone’s curiosity, the poster shared by the B-Town superstar on Friday, went viral soon afterwards. What makes this interesting is that Akshay plays a character who gets possessed by a transgender’s ghost.  However, the following day, Raghava announced his exit from the film being produced by Akshay, Shabina Khan and Tusshar.  

On Saturday, he wrote on Twitter: “In this world, more than money and fame, self-respect is the most important attribute to a person’s character. So I have decided to step out of the project,  #LaxmmiBomb Hindi remake of Kanchana (sic).” He also shared a note elaborating his decision. He stated, “I don’t want to mention the reason because there are multiple reasons, but one of them is that the first look poster of the film was released today without my knowledge and even without discussing anything with me. I was informed about this by a third person. It is very painful for a director to know about his movie’s first look release from others. I feel very disrespected and disappointed. As a creator, I’m also not satisfied with the poster design as well. This shouldn’t happen to any director.”  


(Tusshar, Shabina Khan)

He further added in spite of this, he will still allow the producers to use his script as he respects Akshay. “I can hold back my script because I haven’t signed any agreement regarding this film, but I won’t do it because it is not professional. I’m ready to give my script because I personally respect Akshay Kumar sir a lot. They can replace me with some other director according to their wish. Soon I’m going to meet Akshay Kumar sir to give the script and step out of this project in a good way. All the very best to the entire team. I wish the movie a great success,” Raghava signed off his note. 

When actor-producers turned directors 

Incidentally, this is not the first time that a director has left the project owing to creative differences with the actor and producers. Over 22 years ago, ad-filmmaker Shantanu Sheorey opted out of Chachi 420 (1997) following differences with Kamal Haasan, the film’s lead actor and also one of the producers. While it was Kamal himself who had initially chosen the ad filmmaker to helm the movie, he was unhappy with the complaints at the end of five days of shooting. After checking the result, the winning actor took over the directorial reins of the comedy-drama.  


(Aamir Khan and Darsheel Safari in Taare Zameen Par, Amole Gupte; Kamal Haasan and Tabu in Chachi 420, Shantanu Sheorey)

Taare Zameen Par (2007) is another instance where the actor-producer took over the film’s direction. Amole Gupte and his wife Deepa Bhatia had developed the story that tried to understand why some children can’t conform to a conventional education system. Amole got Aamir Khan to produce and act in the film. But after reviewing the footage of the week’s shoot, Aamir reportedly ‘lost faith in Amole and his capability of translating on the screen what he had so beautifully written on paper’. The actor-producer was contemplating opting out of the film due to these creative differences, but Amole apparently managed to keep him on board by stepping down as director. At the end of it all, Amole was credited as ‘Creative Director’ of the film.

Kangana took over direction from Krish 


(Kangana Ranaut in Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi; Radha Krishna Jagarlamudi)

Last year, Kangana Ranaut took over the reins of Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi after director Radha Krishna Jagarlamudi aka Krish opted out as he headed to the South to complete his two-part biopic on late legendary Telugu actor-filmmaker-turned-politician, NT Rama Rao that released earlier this year. In the final prints of the historical drama, the actress was also credited as director along with the original director. 

But, Akki’s not directing  

Incidentally, unlike these three instances, Akshay isn’t taking over the direction of Laxmmi Bomb. It is being reported that he and his co-producers met on Sunday to discuss the future course of action for their collaboration. Apparently, they will be roping in a new director to helm the film. However, things are being kept under wraps for now as the next shooting spell, a 40-day one, is scheduled this September. 
We contacted Shabina Khan for their side of the story. But the producer didn’t revert to our text messages till the time of going to press. 

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