Akshay Kumar: I don’t say no to ANY work, it’s kaam, kamaayi, karm for me

Akshay Kumar’s most recent film, Bachchhan Paandey, may not have been a box-office success, but that won’t stop him from signing new projects and returning to the big screen. The actor has no reservations about taking on more acting and endorsement work, despite being accused of constantly working for money. Not only that, but the 54-year-old prefers to take things in stride and go on, even if memes tease him by implying that he will be in every biopic made. Excerpts from a freewheeling chat:

Bachchhan Paandey received mixed reviews and the success of The Kashmir Files also seems to have impacted the box office collections. What’s your take?

Yes, I would have liked Bachchhan Paandey to better than what it is doing but not once do I blame the Kashmir files for it. That film is a storm and we came in the eye of it.

The kind of response The Kashmir Files has got has been so unexpected. What are your thoughts on such films becoming a success story not just critically but even commercially?

I am elated with the success that The Kashmir Files has seen. It tells you the power of cinema and that there is no formula of starting budgets and films of a certain way that guarantee success. It proves that the audiences are who we make our films for and when they lap up something it just flies.

No matter what time of the year it is, you always have four to five films coming up next. And 2022 is no different with multiple projects lined up for release in the coming months. Has it now become easy to maintain this pace?

What has happened is because of the pandemic [in the last two years] , the release calendar of a lot of films has gone up and down. Whenever things opened (in between lockdown), I would immediately get back to work, so while films kept getting finished, they were not releasing. Laxmi i(2020), BellBottom and Sooryavanshi (both 2021) released yet there was a lot of backlog. And I don’t manipulate. If my producer is saying a film needs to come out in a particular month, I don’t question because who am I to decide which film would come out when. That’s the producer’s call. And every producer knows what’s best for his film; also he’s put the money and he has all the rights. That’s why I allow the whole thing (of deciding release dates) to happen. Maybe that’s why you’d see five to six films coming out back to back this year. And it’s going to be lots of fun that every one or two months, I would have one release. I don’t know how it’s going to be, but I’m really excited about it.

There’s this constant allegation that you won’t stop making money whether it’s making biopics, doing all kinds of films or through endorsements. Are there any boundaries you have set for yourself?

Mujhe apni saari zindagi mein teen basic words samajh aaye - Kaam, Kamaayi aur Karm. Main jee jaan laga ke kaam karta hoon. Zyada se zyada kaam karta hoon taaki zyada se zyada kamaayi kar sakun. I don’t say no to any work that comes my way — kaisa bhi role ho, kaisa bhi function ho, kisi bhi cheez ki ad karni ho. Kyunki kaam se aati hai kamaayi, aur uss se main koshish karta hoon achhe se achha karm karne ki. For the past many years, I have paid the maximum tax each year, and I have contributed 10% of the remaining income to some noble cause. If today, I start thinking about doing lesser work, lesser films, lesser ads,then all these causes will also be impacted in a way. Main simple insaan hun... Mujhe itna hi samajh aata hai — kaam kar, kamaayi kar, karm kar.

When someone goes viral on the internet, whether it’s 19-year-old midnight runner Pradeep Mehra or 126-year-old Swami Sivananda receiving Padma Shri, it’s assumed, especially by trolls, that you’re already working on their biopic or have acquired the rights to make a film about their lives. Do you come across these memes on a regular basis? What is your reaction?

If the meme is funny, I laugh. It’s normal to laugh if you find a joke funny, isn’t it? And who doesn’t like a good laugh? As for being at the centre of these memes, I couldn’t be happier because I’m glad over the years I’ve managed to carve out a space for myself wherein I can fit into such varied roles. This is what has helped me stay relevant and in the memory of my audience. The one featuring Pradeep, I saw that... it’s a still from my upcoming film RakshaBandhan.

Somewhere, you have always maintained that you want to keep up this average of doing four to five films in a year. Has it become any sort of a pressure that audiences expect to see Akshay Kumar on screen every two or three months?

Nothing like that. I’ve been doing it [shooting for multiple films together] since last 30 years. There’s no pressure. Honestly, lot of people ask me this question that, ‘How do you do four films in a year?’ But, I don’t know what to answer... I don’t work for more than eight hours a day. I don’t work on Sundays. I take the maximum holidays. So, I fail to understand why is it such a big thing about it? One film takes about 40 days to shoot, so doing four films takes me 160 days. I still am left with 160 spare days. Even if you take out 52 days, you have more than 100 days left.

Audience is witnessing a flurry of South Indian film remakes, and you seem to be grabbing all of them, which always raises the questions about lack of original scripts. Do you plan to go slow on that front?

That’s not entirely true, I also do original scripts. My upcoming films — Prithviraj, RakshaBandhan, Ram Setu, OMG2, — are all original scripts. Yes, there are some remakes, too, but that’s because these are films I’ve watched and loved. I’m excited to bring this to our audience as I feel the market for the same hasn’t been tapped.

We also see South Indian filmmakers taking cues from Bollywood hit films. So, there seems to be a crossover. Do you agree?

Yes, it’s not a one-way deal. Many South Indian films borrow scripts from our industry. In the recent times, my own films, such as Special 26 (2013), OMG - Oh My God ! (2012) etc. have been remade in the south. Likewise, there are films featuring other Bollywood actors that have been remade as well. If something has worked, and is successful, everyone wants to have a piece of the pie. It’s natural. So it works both ways.

Your fans have been waiting for your OTT debut for long now. When do you we finally see you in a web series?

Writing OTT content is very different to writing a two-and-a-half-hour feature film. There is so much more that goes into web shows — multiple characters with their back stories, multiple episodes — so, you have to keep in mind a multi-season arc while writing to have the germ of the following seasons ready in case the first one works.

You recently mentioned that the team wasn’t satisfied with the screenplay of The End. Is there anything else that you’re reading that you might sign soon?

With The End, we are attempting to do something, which is never done in our Indian space. The story, the technology, the characters... we are trying to make the kind of content that pushes the boundaries as we know it. The good news though is I start filming for it in the fist half of 2023.

Interact with the author/@monikarawal