‘My life is boring’

Mumbai: While his contemporaries choose to do one film each year, Akshay Kumar is happy juggling a handful. And he seems to be doing something right as he is touted as one of the most bankable stars in Bollywood. He feels he can pull off up to four films easily and sees no reason why he should slow down. He says, “I don’t care about star power. I do four films a year while others do just one. Some do one film in two years. But I have been doing four films a year since the time I started out in the industry. And I do that easily. I always have free time. I holiday more than other actors. I take an eight-day break every three months besides a one-and-a-half month holiday once every year. My films begin and end on time. So, why shouldn’t I do four films a year?”

Akshay, who is also a producer now, believes that it’s not star power, but good planning that works for his films. Taking a dig at actors who rely on bank holidays for a good opening, he says, “Stardom comes from films that are larger than life and which you release on bank holidays. I make my films in a good budget and however it does, it works for me. I have a simple logic. I am the producer of the film, so I get money from my company to make the film, so my fees is zero. I make the film in say Rs 15 – Rs 20 crore. We sell the film and the film’s cost gets covered in satellite rights. Then whatever business the film does is my fees. Sometimes the film does well, other times not. But there is no loss whatsoever. The cost of production only goes high when you don’t know your script, when you take 260 days for a film shoot. Many people take almost 300 days to shoot a film and people think ‘yeh hai kamal ki film’. I shoot my films in 40-50 days.”

Akshay continues, “Even a film like Mission Impossible Tom Cruise shot within 47 days because he had the script in hand and everybody knew what their job was. Has Bollywood made a bigger film than Mission Impossible? Then why do we need 260 days? If your actor arrives on the sets at 7 am, and shoots 10-12 hours and gives the unit a Sunday off, your film can be completed in 40 days.”
Citing an example, the actor adds, “I recently completed Neeraj Pandey’s Baby for which I shot 32 days. It was possible because Neeraj kept finetuning his script and only when he was satisfied with the final result, did we start shooting. So no one’s time got wasted. If the actor arrives on time everyone follows suit. Like how when the boss arrives on time, employees feel ashamed and start arriving on time.”

Akshay’s latest The Shaukeens is with new director Abhishek Sharma (of Tere Bin Laden fame). He says he doesn’t care for big names. “I do give suggestions but its up to a director whether to take it or not, they have their own mind. And Abhishek is a fantastic director. His comic sensibility is refreshing. I don’t care how many crores are invested in a project. I want to enjoy doing the film and my son should say, ‘Dad, I loved this film’.”

Akshay is also known to lead a very disciplined life. The actor candidly admits, “My life is quite boring. I don’t have tea or coffee. Neither do I smoke nor indulge in hard drinks or drugs. So the character I play in The Shaukeens is completely opposite of what I am in real life. It was our writer Tigmanshu Dhulia’s idea to add colour to the story. So I play an alcoholic in the film.” He digresses a little. “I don’t want to take names but I know some actors who mix vodka in coconut water or orange juice. People think wow, what a healthy lifestyle they have. No one knows what’s actually there in the nariyal paani or juice. I find that very funny. But I love eating, especially sweets. All rumours about me avoiding sweets are completely fake. Just that I eat in the afternoon and avoid them at night. Because you have the whole day to digest the food, while at night you simply store sugar in your body,” he says.

Till date the Khiladi Kumar has done 162 films. “Among them, around 86 have been hits, others semi hits and flops. I have played a variety of roles, be it in Special 26, Sangharsh or Oh My God. I think it’s my action hero image that makes me funnier. Like how when angry young man Amitabh Bachchan would do comedies, people would enjoy that. The same goes for Bruce Lee and even Jackie Chan. I make it a point to do a variety of roles because I don’t want to just play a typical hero. If I do a Rowdy Rathore all the time I get bored.”