Salman Khan's grand entry at the Vikrant Rona event
Salman Khan, nothing if not box-office savvy, replied honestly to a comment on his involvement in upcoming Kannada film Vikrant Rona. The 56-year-old superstar was present at a press conference for the film in Mumbai. There, he danced with Vikrant Rona stars Kiccha Sudeep and Jacqueline Fernandez and answered questions on films in general and South films specifically. Salman is presenting the Hindi version of Vikrant Rona; the backdrop of the Mumbai press event featured the logo of his company, SKF or Salman Khan Films, along with those of the other distributors. Speaking at the event, Salman explained why he was promoting the film personally – "I don't want to go into losses," he said, reports news agency PTI.
At the press meet, Vikrant Rona actor Neetha Ashok said she had been surprised to see Salman Khan tweeting the trailer of the film. "I'm also presenting the film," Salman reminded her, PTI reports. "I have to do this, I don't want to go into losses. South films are doing really well," he said.
Hindi films have largely been eclipsed in box office performance by recent South films like RRR, Pushpa and KGF: Chapter 2, all of which have been presented as "pan-Indian" projects. Salman also has previous professional connections with the stars of Vikrant Rona – Kiccha Sudeep appeared with him in Dabangg 3 and Jacqueline in films like Kick and Race 3.
There's no formula to making a blockbuster, said Salman Khan, star of several game-changing blockbusters himself. "We all try and make the best film, we want it to reach everyone. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. There's no formula to this, that something will work 100 per cent," he said, PTI reports.
Kiccha Sudeep, one of the biggest box office draws down South, warned against writing the Hindi film industry off. "A lot of films are made in a year, not every film does well. A couple of films do, a couple of films don't. That doesn't mean that we generalise and say it (the industry) is dominating. There are good times for everything. If the Hindi film industry wasn't doing great films, if it didn't have great people, how would you sustain for so many years?" he said, adding a comparison to cricketer Virat Kohli: "It's like Virat Kohli being out of form for a while. Are you going to take away his records? It doesn't work that way... Every industry is standing by its potential."
Vikrant Rona, an action-adventure film, releases this week in multiple languages.
(With PTI inputs)