Is the box office failure of ‘Samrat Prithviraj’ a rejection of Bollywood’s nationalism formula?

If trade reports and news stories in the media are to be believed, Akshay Kumar’s Samrat Prithviraj isn’t doing well at the box office. Kumar is one of the biggest moneymakers in Hindi filmdom who makes films primarily for the box office without any claims of artistic ingenuity. He is a successful mainstream Hindi film star, a status he has achieved without the patronage of leading Hindi film production houses. There are always numerous memes and jokes afloat on social media trying to guess the next Indian luminary Kumar has set his eyes on for a possible biopic. Is this plain deshbhakti? The answer is perhaps known to all.