Akshay Kumar has been consistently giving back to back box office hits. Salman Khan's father Salim Khan believes Akki is an improved actor than his son.
While Salman's Tubelight had bombed at the box office, Akshay's latest release Toilet: Ek Prem Katha performed well to end the dull phase in Bollywood. Salim said Akshay has improved as an actor compared to Aamir Khan, Ajay Devgn or Salman. However, he did not even mention Shah Rukh Khan's name.
"I have to say for Akshay Kumar that the way he has improved as an actor is something that no one else has been able to. The journey that he has covered is almost impossible to imagine. Today he is an actor who can tackle every kind of subject. Other actors like Ajay Devgn, Aamir Khan and Salman have also improved over the course of their careers, but none like Akshay," Salim told Scroll.
The veteran script-writer talked about the reasons behind Tubelight tanking at the box office.
"Tubelight was a good film, which would have done well if any other actor had starred in it, but to have an action hero like Salman getting constantly beaten up and crying all the time just didn't work with the audience. Someone like Raj Kapoor could do any role, the common man, the lover, the comedian, but Salman doesn't have that sort of image.
"The audience kept expecting him to fight back and when he did retaliate a bit towards the end, the entire audience cheered for him, but it never went beyond a couple of blows. Also missing was a love story and in fact, the little you see was added later, there wasn't any initially," Salim said.
Salman will next be seen in action thriller Tiger Zinda Hai slated for December 22 release.
