Akshay Kumar's Rustom was a gamble for Neeraj Pandey

The case that was inspired from real life events was a challenge since the subject was sensitive

Akshay Kumar starrer Rustom has emerged hands down winner against Hrithik Roshan’s Mohenjo Daro and the director’s smile has no limits. Neeraj Pandey who has earlier worked with Akshay in Special 26 and Baby considers him as his lucky charm.Probably this is the reason why the duo will team up again for Crack which will release next year.

Ask the director about how happy he is with the success and he replies,”Unusual plot of Rustom has yielded results beyond the team’s expectations  and I am happy they took the risk of making the movie on instinct. I think many factors contributed to the success of Rustom. But we never thought it would go this far. I’ve to admit the success of Rustom has surpassed all our expectations. Though inspired by a real incident, we made sure there was enough drama and emotions in the telling of the story to keep the audience hooked.”

Featuring Akshay Kumar, Ileana D’Cruz and Esha Gupta in a tale inspired by the real life K.M. Nanavati case, the movie was appreciated by critics and audiences alike. Pandey admits making the movie was a big risk. According to him,”It was a subject on infidelity and not too many films have been attempted on that. We were aware of that. When Tinu Suresh Desai came to us with the subject, I was sure we wanted to do it.”

Also Read: 7 box office records Akshay Kumar’s Rustom broke that you missed!

Talking about his instinct, the director maintains that,”I’ve always gone by instinct. And Tinu Desai has worked with me earlier. He had assisted me on my directorial venture ‘Special 26’, so I knew what he was capable of. The rest is just plain instinct. You have to take risks if you want to get the audience interested.”

Akshay’s participation clinched the matter for Pandey, who produced the movie. He recalls that,”When I had an actor of Akshay’s stature on board, everything else just fell in place. I don’t think we could have made this kind of an impact without him. He persuades audiences to believe in his cinema.”

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Also Read: Akshay Kumar’s Rustom enters the 100 crore club within 9 days!

Pandey and Akshay have collaborated on two films “Special 26” and “Baby” earlier. They are about to collaborate on a third directorial project Crack but he is a bit reluctant to say anything about it.  He suggests that,”At the moment I am not in a position to say anything about our next film ‘Crack’. We have an idea. And we have a release date, Independence Day 2017.  Yes, we shoot for ‘Crack’ from the end of January 2017 to the end of March 2017.Beyond that, there is nothing at the moment. We are yet to decide anything about Crack.”

Akshay’s collaboration with him is based on mutual trust. He will never wonder if the director’s idea will work. Similarly Neeraj  will never wonder if he would fit into his scheme of things.

Akshay Kumar's Rustom was a gamble for Neeraj Pandey