On a train from Leeds to London, Akshay Kumar chats about his upcoming movie, his babysitting stint and his new manager, Reshma Shetty, who was, till recently, managing Salman Khan.
Yes, my wife (Twinkle Khanna) is touring Europe, my son Aarav is in Oxford for a two-week study course so I¡¯m babysitting my daughter Nitara besides shooting for a film (Reema Kagti¡¯s sports- drama Gold). And I have to confess that minding a little girl is a tough job. My admiration for Mrs Funnybones has gone up several notches after realising the magnitude of the task. I don¡¯t know how she writes, designs, looks after our children and still manages to stay calm on most days.
Every morning, Nitara and I have breakfast together, then, we go to this park nearby where one can feed rabbits and goats. After her day-nurse comes, I travel to London for my shoot. Post ¡®pack-up¡¯, I take my daughter out again. The other evening, we went to watch Cars. Half way through the film she decided that she was tired, so we had to leave and drive back. I tried explaining to her that I wanted to continue watching the movie till the end, to no avail. Bringing up a baby is tough.
Promoting a movie is a cakewalk in comparison. Speaking of which, a lot of people continue to ask me why my next film has a weird title like Toilet: Ek Prem Katha. And when I add that it is essentially a love story with a social message, they actually wrinkle their noses!
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I haven¡¯t been bitten by any bug but I hope my film raises a stink about open defecation, something that is plaguing our country. As far as my current lot of movies go, I prefer to choose more relatable characters to the largerthan- life roles that I did earlier on in my career.
In Toilet¡ I¡¯m a commoner from UP who has never questioned his father on why their house doesn¡¯t have a basic amenity like a latrine. It is only after his wife (Bhumi Pednekar) comes into their home does he realise how terrible it is to defecate in the open and life takes a turn for the better. His love for his wife makes him a crusader.
The choice of a heroine is not mine alone. It is usually the joint decision of the producer and director. In most cases, the girls I have worked with recently have been the ones best suited for the role.
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I can¡¯t imagine anyone other than Bhumi for Toilet. She is brilliant and brave. She has to expose a certain steely quality to play a lady who is asked to go to the field to relieve herself. Can you imagine what it feels like to hike up your sari or ditch your salwar to take a dump? It is so demeaning! One needed a really courageous actor to attempt a role like this. Had we signed a Barbie Doll, we may not have achieved this result.
Yes, it makes sense not to clash. In a scenario where there are 180 films releasing in a time span of 52 weeks, clashes are sometimes inevitable. But they are best avoided.
Reshma and I are both workaholics. I have always admired her for being such a hard worker. She is someone I always wanted to work with but things didn¡¯t fall in place earlier. This time, we found common ground, hence the decision to begin a new association.
I have not heard from Salman or anyone else about this.