• Ayushmann Khurrana has discussed the reasons behind the underwhelming box office results of his most recent three movies.
• The actor, who is renowned for making progressive movies, expressed regret that India is homophobic.
• The LGBTQ community is the focus of a social message in his movie Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui.

The actor Ayushmann Khurrana has discussed the reasons behind the underwhelming box office results of his most recent three movies, Doctor G, Anek, and Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui. The actor, who is renowned for making progressive movies, expressed regret that India is homophobic. The LGBTQ community is the focus of a social message in his movie Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui.

Abhishek Kapoor is the director of Ayushmann’s Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui, which featured transgender actress Vaani Kapoor. The movie opened with 3.75 crore in India and thereafter suffered from an increase in the number of opiate cases. According to estimates, it ended up doing business to the tune of 33.64 crores. His subsequent movies, Anek and Doctor G, only made 9.7 crore and 31.49 crore respectively at the Indian box office.

Ayushmann described himself as “unshakable” when asked if he was affected by his successive films’ poor box office performance. He explained how his films fared overall and told OTT play, “I started with movies on taboo subjects. I suppose the type of subjects—it has to be a community viewing, and it has to have a wider film—the kids have also been watching. In fact, my last three films, including an LGBTQ film (Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui), really don’t do well commercially because, unfortunately, our country is homophobic. Then there was Anek, a docudrama that was a very niche in terms of the tone of the film. Doctor G was an A-rated film, and given the kind of certification it got, the film did decently well in theatres. For a while, that was my learning for making a film.”

Nothing, however, can stop Ayushmann from taking chances even at this point. He also added, “If I stop taking risks, I will be conventional. I have always been unconventional, and I make those choices. I will be taking them in the future as well, regardless of success or failure. I just keep pushing the boundaries, and that’s the beauty of the budgeting of the films, too. My films are mostly low- to mid-budget, so no one loses money and I can afford to take risks.”

The next movie Ayushmann will be in is An Action Hero, directed by Anirudh Iyer. The movie’s scheduled release date is December 2, 2022.