In a freewheeling chat, the actor-producer talks about his penchant for imagined narratives, his love for real cinema, his easy approach to fitness and much more.
TAG TIME
With his upcoming release Singh Is Bliing, the actor is returning to comedy after a slew of serious films such as Baby, Special 26 and Gabbar Is Back. Do tags like action hero or comedy king ever bother him? “When I started my career, it is true that I did only action films. That’s one tag I cannot deny. For more than a decade, I worked only within that genre until I realised that I need to broaden the spectrum of my work if I don’t want to be left behind. That’s when I did films like Hera Pheri and Dhadkan. As we stand today, there are so many good writers around that I would love to be a part of as many films of as many kinds as I can,” he affirms and adds from a producer’s point of view, “I would also want to make them within a certain budget and time frame. That’s how I like to work. Shoot for Singh Is Bliing, for example, began in February this year and the film is releasing already. I’m almost through with my next film, Airlift and I’ve also begun on Housefull 3, which should be wrapped up by December.”
SPINNER OF TALES
He might like to work by a quick schedule, but certain aspects of an actor’s life do involve seemingly endless waiting. Airport lounges, for instance, are definitely a space where Akshay has had to spend a lot of time doing nothing at all. He has, however, invented a game for himself to make the ordeal easier. “I’ll look at a lady talking on her phone, for instance, and then try to construct the conversation she’s having at that moment. I’ll take very calculated guesses at what the issues are that she’s dealing with and make up a whole narrative inside my head. Time flies like nobody’s business when I do this. You should try it too, it’s a game that really helps you evolve as an individual. You learn how to read people in your own way. There have even been times where I’ve gone up to the people I’ve been observing and asked them if I’m accurate in my guesses. Sometimes I’m right, sometimes I’m wrong, sometimes I’m asked to mind my own business and sometimes I’m told to shut up,” he laughs. There seem to be the makings of a storyteller in him too, then.
A spinner of tales, as it were. “As a matter of fact, I do have stories running through my head a lot. Namastey London, for example, was my story. Even Singh Is King was mine. Even right now, I’ve made a suspense film in my head and if I tell you the story, I’m sure you won’t be able to guess who the culprit is!” he says with a teasing glint in his eyes and goes on to narrate an imaginary short film starring himself, Suneil Shetty and Aishwarya Rai, with a special appearance by Naseeruddin Shah.
DIRECTION DREAMS?
Is there a chance of him donning the director’s hat any time soon, we wonder? He responds, “I can direct, but I don’t want to. I’m riding, at this point of my career, in a car that’s speeding along really fast. Why should I consider shifting to the one that moves the slowest? I’m able to make three, four films a year right now. If I begin to direct, I’ll be able to make one film in two years maybe…what sense would that make? I respect everyone’s way of doing things, of course. To each their own.”
CAMP MOBILITY
Not ready for the director’s chair just yet, Akshay is happy juggling the roles of actor and producer while maintaining great bonds with the directors he trusts. He does not, however, believe in restricting himself to them, contrary to general perception. “Every actor bonds with a set of directors. Jam jaata hai. Neeraj (Pandey) and I have a good understanding, for example, and I think he makes very intelligent films with commercial saleability. Having said that, I would love to work with as many directors as I can. I don’t believe in camps. I believe in bungalows,” he says with a chuckle and adds that for Airlift, he has chosen to work with a debutante director. Talking about the film itself, he shares, “Airlift is one film everyone should watch. It is based on the true events that transpired when Saddam Hussein launched an attack on Kuwait, and is about what happened to the 1,70,000 Indians there, how they survived within the warzone, where they went with their families and finally how the Indian Air Force along with Indian Airlines and Air India organised their evacuation. This was the biggest evacuation ever conducted in the world and it was done by India, as attested to in the Guiness Book of World Records. This is a film that I want Indians to watch the way I wanted them to watch Baby, which was for me about the unsung heroes whose faces we never see. It’s great fun to do movies like these.”
