ON THE RECORD
Akshay Kumar, Actor
'I've learnt a lot from Tom & Jerry. It's surprising but a lot of my early stunts were copied from Tom & Jerry'
Posted online: Monday, November 19, 2007 at 0000 hrs Print Email
Actor Akshay Kumar, who has trained in martial arts, started out as an action hero but found he was equally successful doing action, comedy, and even both together. In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7\'s Walk the Talk, Akshay Kumar speaks about his early years in Chandni Chowk, learning martial arts in Thailand, the Khiladi mystique, and the tattoo on his back. Excerpts . . .
• My guest this week is the lone man standing in the way of the total condemnation of Hindi cinema. No, he's not a Bachchan or a Roshan. He's Akshay Kumar.
Thank you, Sir.
• It's marvellous to have you on Walk the Talk. You're one of the most popular actors among young people, women, grown-ups, and even old people.
Am I? Thank you very much. I feel very nice about that.
• And you are the most fun star.
Yes, I like doing fun stuff. I like doing things that people enjoy. I love entertaining people. Actually, I didn't realise that. Some of my directors made me realise that I like doing comedy and entertaining people. So I started doing it. It was great.
• You started out being serious. More of a maar-dhaad (kind of hero).
A lot of action and all that. But then everything started changing, thanks to the media, which said, 'He only does action, he's an actor who is just like furniture.' Actually they were being nice, for when I saw some of my old films, I don't think I was furniture but a furniture showroom. It was quite bad. I wanted to change my image, challenge myself, try to do something different.
• We've now caught you on the sets of another fun film.
Yes, that's Tashan. I'm shooting for it. Vijay (Krishna Acharya) is the director. It's a great film for me to do.
• Your fighting image came naturally, because you had learnt martial arts.
Yes.
• And you had the body.
Well, I did, because I loved doing martial arts, which I started learning when I was nine or ten. I was learning here in Bombay. I asked my dad if he could send me somewhere to learn. I think at that time Bangkok was one of the cheapest places where you could go and learn martial arts. My uncle was working there, so I got this opportunity to go there and learn Thai boxing.
• Did you learn it seriously?
Yes, yes, absolutely. When I came back, I started classes here. I used to teach people. I used to train children and grown-ups. I always thought of being a martial arts instructor; never did I think I'll be in the entertainment business.