Superstar Akshay Kumar's last film 'Samrat Prithviraj' turned out to be a box office disaster despite its promising content and elaborate marketing. Recently, few media reports claimed that makers of the film are now blaming ongoing controversies surrounding Akshay Kumar and his lack of commitment to the project for its failure.

However, in a recent media interaction, 'Samrat Prithviraj' director Chandraprakash Dwivedi cleared the air by stating that Akshay had nothing to do with his film's failure. The filmmaker told ETimes, "In the last four years we have come closer to each other. He is not only an actor for me. He is more than an actor – a friend, a well wisher, a guardian. He is younger to me but behaves like a guardian. I never blamed him for the failure of the film. Why should I? If he wouldn’t have been there, the film would never have been made."

Taking full responsibility of underwhelming box office performance of 'Samrat Prithviraj', director Dwivedi said, "If anybody is responsible for the failure of ‘Samrat Prithviraj’, it is me. I don’t understand my audience.