Jaideep Ahlawat on An Action Hero’s lacklustre box office performance: ‘No point beating oneself for it’

Jaideep Ahlawat was a familiar face on OTT this year with the series Bloody Brothers, The Broken News and the anthology Tryst With Destiny all premiering in 2022. The actor’s lone feature film, An Action Hero, released on December 2. Ayushmann Khurrana stars as a film star Manaav on the run after an accidental killing, with Jaideep playing the dead man’s brother Bhoora. The film didn’t perform well at the box office, despite positive reviews from critics and fans. (Also read: An Action Hero review: Ayushmann Khurrana packs a punch in this cat and mouse chase between trigger-happy men)

The actor, in an interview, spoke about why he doesn’t have expectations for his projects. While he shared that the intention when making a film is that it be seen by as many people as possible, sometimes things don’t work out. Jaideep explained, “I mean surely, after a film’s failure there is some introspection about what might have gone wrong about 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 it’s 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. But no, I don’t become anxious about it.”

In the interview with Film Companion, he added, “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.” Taking a philosophical approach, the actor said, “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.”

Jaideep will be seen next in Sujoy Ghosh’s The Devotion of Suspect X with Kareena Kapoor and Vijay Varma. His other feature project, Three of Us, recently premiered at the International Film Festival of Goa in November. Directed by Avinash Arun, the filma also stars Shefali Shah and Swanand Kirkire.