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?

Firstly, let me tell you I am elated with the success that 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. Yes I would have liked Bachchhan 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.

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. Zaada se zaada kaam karta hoon taaki zaada se zaada 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 se mein koshish karta hoon achhe se achha karm karne ki. Pichhle kayi saal main har saal sabse zada tax bharta hoon aur uske baad jo income hai uska 10% kisi achhe cause mein contribute karta hoon. If today, I start thinking about doing lesser work, lesser films, lesser ads…then it will also impact these causes in a way, jo achhe karm mujhe support karne hain woh kar paane ki meri haisiyat ho paati hai yah nahi. Mein simple insaan hoon…mujhe itna hi samajh aata hai – kaam kar, kamaayi kar, karm kar.

Whenever anyone goes viral — be it 19-year-old running boy Pradeep Mehra or 126-year-old Swami Sivananda receiving Padma Shree — is it said that Akshay Kumar is already working on his biopic or has already taken the rights for a film. Do you watch these memes featuring yourself that get made? How do you react?

If the meme is funny, I laugh. Aur nahi toh kya, normal hai…joke acha hota hai toh aap bhi haste ho na? And who doesn’t like a good laugh? As for being at the center 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, it’s what has helped me stay relevant and in the memory of my audience. The one featuring Pradeep, I saw that one, it’s a still from my upcoming film RakshaBandhan.

We witness a constant 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. Among my upcoming films which are original, there’s Prithviraj, RakshaBandhan, Ram Setu, OMG2, Gorkha to name a few. Yes there are also some remakes but that’s because these are films I’ve watched and loved and I’m excited to bring to our audience as I feel the market for the same hasn’t been tapped. And it’s not a one-way deal, even South Indian films borrow scripts from our industry. In recent times, my own films like Special 26, Oh My God !etc. have been remade in the south. Likewise there are films of other Bollywood actors that have been remade as well. If something has worked, it’s 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? You recently mentioned that the team wasn’t satisfied with the screenplay of ‘The End’… is there anything that you’re reading other than that and might sign soon?

Writing OTT content is very different to writing a two-and-a-half-hour film. There is so much more that goes in to it, multiple characters with all of their back stories, multiple episodes, you have to keep in mind a multi season arc whilst writing to have the germ of the following seasons ready in case the first one works and so on and so forth. But especially with The End we are attempting to do something which is never done in our Indian space – the story the technology the characters etc – and 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.

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