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FILM INTERVIEW: AKSHAY KUMAR

Bollywood Star Plays a Conman in ‘Tees Maar Khan’

By: Simran Mody
December 22, 2010

Bollywood superstar actor Akki has a feeling that Farah Khan’s Tees Maar Khan will be different from the other films he has starred in recently, all of which have struggled to gain blockbuster status at the box office. To be sure, films like Blue, Kambakkht Ishq, and Chandni Chowk to China definitely gave Hindi film fans and critics alike some reason to cringe. Yet, in teaming up with one of Bollywood’s top-notch directors in Ms. Khan and sexiest actresses in Katrina Kaif, Akshay Kumar certainly feels this latest action-comedy will be an enjoyable cinematic experience, even if it does typecast him as a leading funny-man.

 
“I don’t think I have lowered my experimentation level, as I am only doing what the audience wants. Audiences today only want full entertainment which can be provided only through comedy,” Mr. Kumar, who last starred in Action Replayy and Khatta Meetha, told reporters during a promotional event. “The film is well-executed. My role is of a clever conman who alone loots 10,000 kg (22,000 lb) of items in a running train and, as we all know, stealing is very much prevalent in our society.”
 
Opening throughout India on December 24th (it already opened in the United States and the United Kingdom in anticipation of the Christmas holiday in both countries), Mr. Kumar is pleased to have his name attached to what is expected to be one of 2010’s biggest blockbusters. According to Mr. Khan, it helps that the comedy of Tees Maar Khan is clean.
 
“Tees Maar Khan is a simple comedy--not one with double-meaning or innuendoes--and a wholesome family entertainer. I am hopeful it will connect with the audience,” Mr. Kumar, who plays somewhat of a Robin Hood character, told the press.
 
Also wearing a co-producer hat, Mr. Kumar is unfazed by the disappointing box office receipts of the last two films he headlined, including the much-anticipated but underperforming Action Replayy with Aishwarya Rai.
 
As for Tees Maar Khan, Mr. Kumar does not think the box office expectations of the film are in any way connected to previous productions. Instead, he believes his character, who is a bit of a conman, has enough mass appeal to make this film, which also stars Akshaye Khanna, positively relevant at the box office during the final days of 2010.
 
“I keep working and striving hard for each and every film. Everybody looks for a big hit and it is left to the audience,” Mr. Kumar candidly told reporters. “But my character in this film is certain to warm up to people. They would be able to relate to him, who brags about killing 30 people but actually has ended up killing less than 10 mosquitoes.”
 
Of course, it also helps to have an acclaimed director attached to the production, as well as an entry from the film’s soundtrack--“Sheila Ki Jawaan”--pummeling to the top of the charts.
 
“With Farah as the director, I never did have to wear the producer’s hat. Farah, instead, had many responsibilities as the director, choreographer, and man manager,” Mr. Kumar observed to the press.
 
With Ms. Khan making Mr. Kumar’s life a lot easier on the production front, both director and actor/co-producer hope to have their collective worries eased about the box office, which overall has been brutal to a vast majority of Bollywood productions this year. Alas, with expectations pegging Tees Maar Khan as a potential blockbuster, and the lack of serious competition both this week and next, does the film have a chance of catching the year’s box office leader in Dabangg?
 
“There is no competition. I am happy Dabangg ended up becoming a superhit film. It was very well-made. I am equally hopeful about Tees Maar Khan,” Mr. Kumar told reporters.
 
Oddly enough, in praising Dabangg, he also threw a small jab at the Salman Khan-headlined film as well, stating that he is happy Tees Maar Khan was not compared to the year’s box office leader in one category.
 
“I have had a wonderful experience with Katrina, and I am happy that her dance number in the film is being compared with pop star Shakira and not with Munni in Dabangg, as was being done frequently wherever we went earlier,” the actor facetiously told the media.
 
All comparisons aside, Mr. Kumar is hopeful audiences discover Tees Maar Khan to be a one-of-a-kind film comparable to nothing else Bollywood has ever seen. If such a phenomenon indeed occurs, perhaps audiences will steadily flock to the multiplexes in droves and Mr. Kumar will end his streak of box office disappointments.
 
Tees Maar Khan is now playing in the United States and the United Kingdom, and opens in India on December 24th, just in time for Christmas.