Akshay Kumar dismisses report claiming he's reduced fees by ₹30 crore for Bell Bottom, calls it 'fake'

Actor Akshay Kumar on Monday took to Twitter to dismiss a news report that claimed he'd reduced his fees. The report said that Akshay had agreed to reduce his fees by ₹30 crore for Bell Bottom, an upcoming spy thriller that he filmed in Scotland last year.

While Akshay Kumar didn't confirm this number in his tweet, he did call the report 'fake'. Quote-tweeting the original post, he wrote, "What waking up to FAKE Scoops feels like!" He also added a couple of emojis to better express his emotions.

The original Bollywood Hungama report said that producer Vashu Bhagnani had asked Akshay to reduce his fee, to which the actor had agreed. The report also claimed that Akshay had quoted a salary of ₹117 crore upfront for the film, which he later elevated to ₹135 crore for the rest of his 2022 slate. Vashu tweeted that there is 'no truth to this news at all'.

"Being primarily a film that caters to the tier 1 and 2 cities, Vashu Bhagnani wanted to keep the budget in check and hence, he requested his leading man, Akshay to scale down his acting fees by ₹30 crores, as the rise in budget aside, there looms a lot of uncertainty on the release too. If theatrical, it's a given that the film wouldn't earn what it would have in a normal scenario," the report had quoted a trade source as saying. The source added that Akshay had 'graciously agreed' to reduce his salary, keeping in mind the Covid-19 situation. However, if the film turns a profit, he would be reimbursed for the 'discount'. But if the film 'doesn't overperform', he stands to make around ₹80-90 crore.

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Akshay, who recently recovered from the coronavirus, has a packed slate. Sooryavanshi, his cop thriller directed by Rohit Shetty, has been in the can for over a year. He has completed filming Bell Bottom, and had begun work on Prithviraj, Bachchan Pandey and Ram Setu.