Demonetisation affected Rock On 2’s box office performance, says Javed Akhtar

Kolkata: Noted lyricist and former Rajya Sabha MP Javed Akhtar said on Friday that Rock On 2, which stars his son Farhan Akhtar in the lead, has been affected by demonetisation. “The film released on October 11, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8. Not many people went to watch the movie as their spending capacity had been hit owing to demonetisation,” Mr Akhtar, who had himself penned lyrics for the songs on Rock On 2, said.

On being questioned about the lukewarm opening to Shah Rukh Khan’s Dear Zindagi that released on Friday, he said, “Spending capacity of the citizen has become a little shy, but Dear Zindagi is, by temperament, a niche film and not a mass film. It is not a typical Shah Rukh film, the masses crazy for the superstar will take time to get a feel of it.” He, however, made it clear that he was optimistic about the demonetisation move.

“I am a die-hard optimist in this case. These are phases. What is bigger is the interest of the nation itself? The resilience of the nation. Politics is not the nation, politics can influence or imprison nation for a while but the nation is much more important than all politics put together. Because the nation is people,” he added. He also said that the Hindi film industry has no problem, because all transactions are carried out in cheques.