Mumbai: Akshay Kumar is a no-nonsense man. Reticent and hesitant, you hardly get him talking unless he’s totally on the go! But when he’s in his spirits, he can be the funniest to talk to. You ask him anything and he has an answer to everything. Almost EVERYTHING. Visibly excited about his upcoming release Baby, Akshay talks to us over simmering cups of coffee.
He bonds with a particular set of directors whom he keeps on repeating with his films. Is it a conscious thing? ‘No’, Akki claims. “We bond because the directors are making the kind of films I want to work in. That is what has happened. There’s nothing else in it. I did Waqt, Namastey London, Singh Is King, Aakhen, Action Replay and Holiday with Vipul and same with Neeraj. There’s a sense of compatibility with their films”, he explained.
Baby has a lot of gruelling action sequences, ones which have used the Octocopter drone to shoot the scenes. “It was a fantastic experience. With the Octocopter drone you can get some fantastic shots because that’s the thing what other cameras cannot do and it goes higher than you can imagine. You get great eagles points of view. While shooting for chase sequences, the camera comes behind you without anyone running. Technology helps a lot”, Akshay continued, claiming that the action sequences in Baby is far more real than any of his other films. “The action in Baby is very real and it does not go above the character. It is not like one person is hitting 15 to 20 people which is impossible in real life. Here, you see the man only going against one guy or at the max, a small group of guys which is plausible in real life too”.
Although Baby has opened to great reviews with Akshay showered with compliments from everywhere, the actor maintains a strong stance. ‘There was no need to research’, he said. “In fact Neeraj Pandey told me to not research as he has done all the research. I took little training for action but I have always done action throughout the career. I practised 4 to 5 days at Abu Dhabi where we have shot the major chunks of action in the film”
The actor who usually comes up with some masala potboilers and action comedies have started breaking his own stereotype, pushing himself beyond the boundary line. Calling it a ‘deliberate attempt, Akshay says, “I want to do more realistic cinema because I have started enjoying this type of film”. But does that mean commercial films will be given a miss? “Definitely not”, shuns Akshay. “I don’t want to miss out on a Housefull 3 kind of film as they are very much into the commercial slapstick space and the kind of films children love”, our Khiladi signed off.
