Akshay Kumar Set Himself On Fire For Web Series Debut, But Project Got Shelved - Here's What Happened

India's content consumers witnessed a watershed moment with the coming of Netflix in the country back in 2018. Back then, Sacred Games would herald a new format in filmmaking - the web series. At the time, the streaming giant's rival Prime Video was also looking for inroads in the Indian OTT space and announced a "big action thriller" series with Akshay Kumar in the lead role. Back in the late 2010s, the Bollywood star was striking gold at the box office with every release and his streaming debut was much awaited by the fans. However, the project never saw the light of the day.

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When Akshay set himself on fire for The End promotional launch

Tentatively titled The End, the planned show was Prime Video's big bet after the success of its original crime thriller Breathe, starring Abhishek Bachchan. The End launch was also not an ordinary one. Akshay arrived at the event in his signature action style - his hands and legs on fire. The stunt was enough to tease what was in store for the fans.

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On his digital debut, the actor said it was his son Aarav who urged him to venture into the OTT space. At the time, Jennifer Salke, Head - Amazon Studios (Worldwide), showed extreme confidence in The End. She shared that the next big hit can come from anywhere in the world and Amazon believed a show like The End would cross all boundaries. It was also revealed that The End would take place over "many seasons and many years". Many pegged the genre as a "survival thriller set in the future".

Has The End met its unfortunate "end"?

Long delays followed and The End was seemingly shelved. What lingered on was the image of Akshay, on fire, walking down the ramp. No one could have pulled off such theatrics, and sky would have been the limit as far as action goes for a series starring the Bollywood action star.

When asked what went wrong with The End, in 2022, Akshay shared, "We were going to start this year but we were not satisfied with the screenplay, Amazon was not satisfied."