Akshay Kumar said that he has also starred in films like Airlift and the recently released Mission Raniganj, which were set during the Congress era.
Akshay Kumar is often accused of highlighting BJP initiatives in his films, such as his 2016 film Toilet: Ek Prem Katha was said to be the marketin tool of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the country-wide cleanliness campaign launched by the ruling government on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, i.e. on October 2 in 2014.
In a recent interview with Times Now, when Akshay was about his political ideologies with the mention of the fact that he is the only actor in India to interview a Prime Minister (Akshay interviewed PM Modi ahead of the 2019 general elections), the actor replied, “Who wouldn’t do it? If anybody else would have been given this chance, who wouldn’t do it? I got the opportunity and I have interviewed Prime Minister, not anyone else.”
When the Hera Pheri actor was asked about the accusations of highlighting BJP through his films, he said, “It’s true. Some people accuse me of promoting Swachh Bharat through Toilet: Ek Prem Katha; I also made Padman. But nobody notices that I made Airlift, which was set during the Congress era. Even Mission Raniganj is set during the Congress era. But nobody is pointing that out. They only say these things when it’s convenient for their narrative.”
Talking about his latest release Mission Raniganj, the rescue thriller is is based on a real disaster that took place in Raniganj, West Bengal in 1989 that left six miners dead and 65 trapped in a flooded coal mine. Akshay plays mining engineer Jaswant Singh Gill, who rescued those 65 miners stuck inside the flooded mine and became a national hero. Though the film has received mostly good reviews from the critics, it ha failed to attract moviegoers into the theatres with a shockingly low collection of around Rs 12 crore in its opening weekend.
READ | Akshay Kumar reacts strongly to Israel-Hamas conflict, condemns ‘any kind of terrorism’: ‘Killing is not the answer’
