Rohit Shetty on Akshay Kumar's citizenship row, Golmaal Jr and comparisons of his cop-verse to Avengers franchise

Director Rohit Shetty has spoken in support of Akshay Kumar after the Sooryavanshi actor received backlash for holding a Canadian citizenship. Talking about the issue, Shetty said that people would soon forget about the issue because of his charitable disposition. [caption id=“attachment_5863441” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Rohit Shetty. Image via Twitter/@anupamachopra[/caption] “It is just a matter of few days and people will forget about it, since he has taken up the responsibility of helping people. I know him very well, while he helps others a lot, he avoids blabbering about it,” Shetty said in a statement. Talking about _Golmaal Junior_ , the upcoming animation television show based on his blockbuster franchise Golmaal, Shetty shared that the massive success of _Little Singham_ propelled him towards making a series on the comedy films. “The appreciation Little Singham got from kids gave us the confidence to think that we have one more franchise which is much larger and can work well with kids. That’s how Golmaal Junior happened.” He added that he takes his franchise as a responsibility. “Whatever you do, it is like a responsibility because you can’t kill your brand if _Golmaal Again_ goes wrong, or Golmaal Junior goes wrong. Because you may lose your kid audience.” After the back-to-back successes of Singham, Singham Returns and last year’s _Simmba_ , many wondered if Shetty is on his way to create a cop universe akin to the Avengers franchise and MCU. “The Avengers brand is too big, and comparing my cop-verse to it is like a joke,” Shetty quipped. He further remarked that he was scared to include Singham’s character in Simmba, “but it worked in a very big way so we are just going ahead and expanding it (the cop-verse).” He added that the  female cop film will definitely happen, but it will take some time as the film demands a “very strong script.” He also assured that _Golmaal 5_ is also on the cards. (With inputs from Simran Singh)