King Kumar?

Promos of Singh is Kinng changed ‘Badshah’ to ‘King’ to avoid reference to SRK; guess they forgot about King Khan!

The promos of Akshay Kumar’s Singh Is Kinng are out. The teaser declares, “The King of Bollywood as never seen before” just before Akshay makes his entry.

A source close to the film reveals that the makers were initially planning to use the line “The Badshah of Bollywood” in the teaser. However, they changed the plan since the Badshah title is usually associated with Shah Rukh.

A promo using ‘Badshah of Bollywood’ was shot for publicity puposes but not used because Akshay didn’t want the Badshah reference as it would create unnecessary controversy. A source says, “Singh is Kinng is a blockbuster for Akshay.

The promo obviously wanted to cash in on the recent success his films have had at the box office. This is the first time there’s a promo that directly announces Akshay as the ‘King’ of Bollywood.”

However, if they dropped Badshah because it is associated with SRK, then King defeats the purpose, as SRK is also known as King Khan.

The makers have made several promos featuring Akshay and these will be released over a period of time. “They wanted to start with a bang announcing Akshay as the true King of Bollywood. In a way, using the title of King also puts him directly in contention with Shah Rukh.”

Wasn’t the intention to avoid controversy?

Tushar Joshi