After box office dud "Bombay to Bangkok" last year, Nagesh Kukunoor returns with a supernatural thriller titled "8X10 Tasveer" that has Akshay Kumar in the lead.

The film, which releases Friday, also stars Ayesha Takia, Sharmila Tagore, Javed Jaffery, Girish Karnad, Anant Mahadevan and Benjamin Gilani.

"8X10 Tasveer" is the story of a young man Jai (Akshay) who has a supernatural gift to look into the past of dead people by touching their 8x10 photographs.

Mysteries, however, begin to arise when a 8x10 photograph reveals Jai's past. Later a personal tragedy leads him to use his power to come up with the answers.

Akshay says it is one of the most exciting films he has ever done.

"I have a well carved role in the movie and I did a lot of hard work for it. I'm sure that my viewers will appreciate my work this time too as they have always done, " Akshay was quoted as saying.

Said Kukunoor: "It is a very significant film. The film's subject makes it stand out among other films and the performance of all the actors have further added to its beauty. Akshay, Ayesha and all others have done a great job in the film and I am sure their hard work will be praised by the audience."

Made on a budget of approximately Rs.60 crore (Rs.600 million), "8X10 Tasveer" is releasing with around 1, 500 prints worldwide.

The film was in the middle of a controversy over a financial transaction between its co-producers Percept Picture Company and T-Series, but now it is being single-handedly released by Percept. And the producers are pinning high hopes on it.

"It is a huge film and even Akshay has gone on record to say that this is one of the biggest films out of his 129 films so far. The film offers Akshay as never seen before, " Navin Shah, CEO of Percept Picture Company, told on phone from Mumbai.

The film has already managed to generate mass appeal courtesy its promos and music by Salim-Suleiman and because it is the first big-budget project after two months.

"There are a lot of expectations from the film as there has been a drought of A-list films in the last two months and with '8X10...', one can't get a bigger and better window for an A-list movie at this time, " Shah said.

Shailendra Singh, joint managing director of Percept, added: "'8X10 Tasveer' is an awesome suspense thriller with elegantly shot sequences that are definitely going to keep the audiences tied to their seats and none of them will be disappointed."