Sooryavanshi: Akshay Kumar's cop drama may break the monotony of Salman Khan's Eid releases

The first pictures of Rohit Shetty’s Sooryavanshi , starring Akshay Kumar, were released today_._ The actor plays the lead role of Veer Suryavanshi, a character introduced as an Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) officer in a cameo role in Simmba , which saw Ranveer Singh in the lead. The film is expected to go on floors by April and will release on Eid. Kumar and producer Karan Johar took to their Twitter accounts to announce the release date of the film. [caption id=“attachment_6199231” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Akshay Kumar in Sooryavanshi. Image via Twitter/@akshaykumar[/caption] It’s a well-known fact that the Christmas weekend belongs to Aamir, while Shah Rukh is believed to have the profited most from the Diwali weekend. Kumar has made the most of Independence Day or Republic Day with films like Airlift (2016), Rustom (2016), Toilet: Ek Prem Katha(2017) and Gold (2018) running high on patriotic fervour. This year, the actor has again managed to book the lucrative weekend for the release of_Mission Mangal,_ that stars Taapsee Pannu, Vidya Balan, among others in lead roles. But it seems like the actor could be experimenting with mainstream holidays like Eid and Diwali. He has booked this year’s Diwali in advance for his movie Housefull 4. Eid, however, has predominantly belonged to one man through the years and that is Salman Khan. He is the only A-list actor that has stuck so loyally with the Eid weekend. It all began when he struck gold at the box-office with Wanted (2009) that released on Eid. The action film was responsible in bringing the Khan back in the business and also revamping his stardom to an all-time high in that year. The festive slot has been extremely successful for him and the makers have done everything to reserve the release date. In the last seven years, Salman Khan has had seven blockbusters releasing on Eid. Wanted (2009) Dabangg (2010) Bodyguard (2011) Ek Tha Tiger (2012) Kick (2014) Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) Sultan (2016) It’s interesting to know that Salman has also done a movie called Veer(2010) and another one called Suryavanshi(1992). Coming to Kumar, his cameo in Simmba was thoroughly loved by the audience. This was a promotional technique adopted by Shetty to announce his new film, which will be his first ever collaboration with the actor. Johar, the producer of Simmba, had revealed during the trailer launch that the title is going to be a franchise. It could also mean that Sooryavanshi, or any of the future films in the follow up to Singham or Simmba, might have Devgn, Kumar and Singh share screen space as police officers. The last time Kumar was seen as a police officer was in Rowdy Rathore (2012) and in Khiladi 786 (2012), where he played a fake cop.