satyam

Even khiladis need luck!

Shubha Shetty-Saha

He’s managed three back-to-back hits in a season of flops and is flaunting his chemistry with Katrina Kaif all the way to the box office — the going’s never been better for Akshay Kumar, says Shubha Shetty-Saha

Ask him how the heck a boy from a humble background has catapaulted himself into the league of superstars and he laughs, “There is no magic. I am just lucky. I worked hard on all my films, whether they turned out hits or flops. This time maybe I am going through a lucky phase.”

But such an extended successful phase cannot be just pure luck. There has to be something more…

“Please don’t attribute this to anything else, not even to my intuition, because that would be a huge responsibility. People will start expecting me to give only hits. I don’t want that kind of pressure on me. I am someone who does films with utmost honesty, but sometimes things can go wrong. I have no idea how people are going to respond to my next release ‘Welcome’.”

Even the fact that it’s a comedy doesn’t make it safe bet, he says. “If you keep doing comedies, it becomes boring. ‘Welcome’ is something different though. There is this scene where the director wanted Katrina to pick me up and carry me safely away from a fire. But he was so hesitant telling me about the scene, because I am supposed to be this macho action hero. But when I heard it, I absolutely loved it. In fact, Anees (Bazmi, the director) told me that no other hero would have agreed to allow that,” he says with a grin.

Katrina Kaif seems to have become his favourite heroine these days. “This is my third film with her. We share very good chemistry. Katrina is a hard working girl. Just imagine this girl from the UK who does’t know a word of Hindi, and she has the guts to stand in front of the camera and mouth Hindi dialogues for a Hindi film! Everybody should salute her. It is not an easy job. And she has a hundred per cent success rate…all the films she has starred in have done well. I was telling her the other day, ‘I clap for you, man’.”

Ask him why isn’t he a part of the Bachchan world tour — ‘The Unforgettables’ — any longer and he says, “It’s only because of date problems. They were supposed to do it in April-May but they postponed it to September. And I have no dates to spare at that time.”

Is it true that Anil Kapoor was miffed with the fact that Akshay’s name would appear before his in the credits of the film? “I was the first to tell Feroze Nadiadwala that the credits should be Feroz Khan, Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor, me and Katrina Kaif. Anil-ji is my senior and I know how to respect seniors. Seniors are always respected and you cannot overtake them. These are the rules of life.”