Success Press Conference Of Housefull 3

The “Housefull 3”success press-con at the Trident BKC Jun. 9 saw none of the heroines around, but the men — Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Boman Irani, producer Sajid Nadiadwala and writer-directors Sajid-Farhad — were around in full force.

The so-called Q&A interaction was all too brief, though laced with wit. Virtually the only serious answer was by Sajid of the filmmaker duo, who stated in reply to a query that they always wrote clean films that could be seen by everyone in a family sitting together. In a clear taunt (that was missed by the media) to the newsmaker Anurag Kashyap who says that he makes family films where all the family members watch it separately, he stated that this was what their intention was since they started writing and which they had followed in every film.

For almost five minutes, Bachchan grilled a journalist who asked him why he did not do “solo male leads.”

When the scribe was asked for examples, Bachchan said, “I do not agree with your contention that ‘Guru’ and ‘Bluffmaster!’ were solo lead films. ‘Guru’ had Madhavan and Mithun-da, while ‘Bluffmaster!’ had Riteish and Boman here and Nana Patekar. Look at ‘Housefull 3.’ All of us are the leads, and yet Chunky Pandey’s character as Aakhri Pasta was most applauded and has the most recall. So I never decide on a film seeing (only) the length of a role. The smallest actor has a role in its success or failure.”

He said that he flew down from Chennai where he had gone with his Kabaddi team and that Kumar was also shooting there.

“Riteish is the only one here, and was producing a Kabaddi team on his own!” he joked, referring toDeshmukh’s second and newborn son. He then congratulated him on the arrival of “a new Deshmukh.”

Pandey joked that he was there only in the “Housefull” franchise, because he never got any other work and then cracked his famous line, “I am a-joking!” He replied that he was not choosy but charged too much for a film, and that was why he was doing so much work.

As things go, “Housefull 3” is set to be the second Hindi film of 2016 to reach the 100 crore mark after another Akshay Kumar film, “Airlift,” in January, making Kumar the only star who began both halves of the year with a 100-crore hit and that too in two consecutive releases. As of Jun. 9, it has already crossed a domestic net of Rs. 80 crore.

This franchise film opened to the biggest opening of the year Jun. 3 despite coming out on a normal, working Friday. It is also Kumar’s highest weekend opener and shows this year’s highest weekend collection as well.