The SLB-Akshay Kumar Pact Inside Details

Akshay Kumar’s magnanimous gesture of postponing his PadMan to accommodate Padmaavat has not gone unnoticed by the film industry. The entire industry is talking about his extreme largesse.

But  not much is known about how the  largesse was pulled off.No doubt the gesture was  generous, but not entirely without self-interest

A  source in the know informs, “It was a marvellous marketing manoeuvre. In one stroke Akshay made himself out  to be the hero rescuing Padmaavat from its crisis. But look closer. He actually did his own film a  favour.His entire marketing team advised him to pull  out of the January 25 release slot after Padmaavat came into the picture.With Padmaavat around ,PadMan would have lost at least 45 percent of its intended viewership. Also , with all the threats  of violence hovering over Padmaavat the multiplex theatres screeing bothPadmaavat and PadMan would have witnessed a reduction in visitors. Families  wary of unrest would have stayed away from both films.”

 Sources say Akshay would have pulled out anyway before Sanjay Bhansali showed up with his request to postpone  PadMan.

And therein lies another story.

Apparently Bhansali was reluctant to personally meet up with Akshay with the request.

“He  wanted to leave it to his producers Viacom  18. But it was felt by the entire team that Bhansali should personally request Akshay. Varna achcha nahin lagega(or else it won’t be proper),” says  the source.