Akshay Kumar’s old director blames his God complex for their ‘break-up’: ‘When filmmakers start chasing you…’

Asked about his friendship with Akshay, whom he signed for the film Jaanwar at a time when the actor had experienced over 10 flops in a row, Suneel said, “I was never friends with him. He used to treat me like his guru, and I used to honour it. I was not controlling his career, but I was guiding him in a way that I perceived as right.”

He speculated about what might have influenced Akshay to start being less than forthright with him. “When filmmakers start chasing you, you believe you’re God. You lose that stability. I understood the pressures that he was undergoing, the pressure of stardom, which was fresh at that time…” he said.

After dropping out of Barsaat, Akshay promised Suneel 60 days for Dosti. But, the filmmaker continued, he didn’t have the best experience working on the film. He said, “I did not expect the experiences that I faced in the movie. I was alloted 60 days with Akshay, but after my experience in the first schedule, I thought things had changed. I shot his entire portion in the movie in 24 days and finished it. There was one song left thereafter, for which he didn’t turn up, which I thought was destiny.”

Suneel mused, “What happens is, the people who hold your finger and lead you there, are often the people who need to be sidelined first. Having said that, it’s not like we broke up, but after Dosti got completed, we went for a promotional event in Delhi. We returned on the same flight, then he went his way and I went my way, and then after that, till today, we’ve never met.”

Akshay is among the highest-paid actors in the country, but he’s currently going through a rough patch, with four back-to-back theatrical flops.