Twenty years into Bollywood, Akshay still wins over his audience
By Bidisha Ghosal
A quick background check on the top five superstars of Bollywood today: Shah Rukh Khan studied in prestigious Delhi schools and received the best training an aspiring actor could get. Aamir Khan and Salman Khan hail from film families and grew up breathing, eating and sleeping films. Amitabh Bachchan comes from an academically accomplished family and is lauded for his cultured baritone. And then you have Akshay Kumar, lesser known as Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia, who travelled like a nomad and worked as a cook, jewellery seller, small-time model and martial arts teacher.
From getting Rs 5,000 for a modelling assignment to paying Rs 33 crore as advance tax in 2008, Akshay sure has come a long way. His show Fear Factor—Khatron Ke Khiladi on Colors reportedly fetched him Rs 1.75 crore per episode, his passion for martial arts seeing him through not only the early years of his work, but at the zenith of his career, too.
“I got into karate when I was perhaps eight years old, living in Mumbai,” he reminisces. “My neighbour’s son got a lot of female attention for learning it. That hooked me. It helped that my father supported my interest. At the time, Bruce Lee movies were the rage, so there was a lot of adulation for it.” Even now, Akshay does an hour of martial arts in the morning. “It is my life. It’s not the violent art people think it to be, but a calming and disciplining influence,” he says.
Calm must have come in handy, for it seemed that Akshay would not make it to the big league for the longest time. Not that he hadn’t churned out hits; Akshay had delivered more than enough in the 16 years before Namastey London forced the industry to acknowledge him as an actor to reckon with. Yet he seemed fated to remain on the fringes of Bollywood, his hits dismissed as front-bencher films that ought not to be credited with intelligence or respect. It took another three hits before the then reigning actors suddenly found him by their side with a monster of a blockbuster, Singh is Kinng.
The film shot Akshay straight to the top bracket. “It’s stupid, but the industry banks heavily on where you come from,” says producer-director Vipul Shah. “If you have the right surname, the industry is very quick to take you into its fold though you might be the worst actor in the world. If not, you have to deliver back-to-back hits for the longest time before they sit up and say, ‘okay yes, you’re good, too’. That happened to Akshay.”
The ethereal Katrina Kaif certainly had a strong part to play in fuelling Akshay’s career, lending his front-bencher movies a degree of class. “The two of them are the most wanted on-screen pair for the masses,” says Pranav Adarsh, editor, Trade Guide. “They have been unfailingly successful after their first film together; the masses can’t get enough.” While Akshay’s dream run ended in 2009 with 8/10 Tasveer, Adarsh states that “flops don’t matter anymore; he is still a brand unto himself”. And so Akshay got a higher price for the second run of Khatron Ke Khiladi and even more exciting advertisements with Thums Up.
Says Anand Singh, director, marketing, Coca-Cola India: “Akshay as a brand is all about masculine energy, thrill, daredevilry, with the right kind of attitude. Over the years, he has also evolved as a romantic family man, so while he engages in stunts, he retains his trustworthy element in the public eye. Perfect for Thums Up.” Akshay was ensconced in the action hero image right from his Khiladi movies, but with an edge. All heroes could land a punch or two, but Akshay could choreograph some graceful kicks.
Keshu Ramsay, the Khiladi filmmaker, remembers him as a “jovial, punctual professional. Many people change the minute they hit it big time, but Akshay is the same man that he was a decade ago.” This is almost the constant refrain of his directors. All 11 films Ramsay produced starred Akshay in the lead. Vipul Shah, who began his career with Akshay, cast him in five of his six films. He was the constant co-star of Suniel Shetty and Saif Ali Khan for a significant period. Priyadarshan’s Bollywood hits remain with Akshay alone.
When we meet in Film City on the sets of his forthcoming release with Priyadarshan, Khatta Meetha, Akshay is politeness personified. “The film is a satire on the road construction mafia that builds roads only to dig them up later,” he tells me. The scene has an elephant pulling a tractor with Akshay and Rajpal Yadav in it. “What happens is that the rope snaps,” says Akshay, beginning to guffaw. “And the tractor rolls backwards and crashes into that house” [pointing to a facade behind us] “that belongs to a municipal worker.” He dissolves into laughter.
That is the very essence of his career. Inane slapstick comedy, totally unapologetic and completely mass-oriented. After 20 years and 120 films in Bollywood, Akshay knows that being entertained is what drives the nation to theatres; unlike other superstars, he does not care about what critics deign to confer.
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