Akshay Kumar, one of the most prolific actors, who, in recent years, has added an element of variety to his list of performances, is back with his second outing this year with period action drama Prithviraj helmed by Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi under the banner of Yash Raj Films. Kumar will be seen in the titular role of the 12th century Rajput king Prithviraj Chauhan in the film co-starring debutante Manushi Chhillar, Sanjay Dutt, Ashutosh Rana, Sonu Sood and Sakshi Tanwar. Kumar’s last release Bachchan Pandey may have failed to bring audience to the theatres; however, the actor believes in moving on as he says, “You can feel bad on Friday, Saturday, Sunday but by Monday you have to bounce back, pick up yourself and go for your next shoot and be happy on the set.”

The actor has quite a few projects in his kitty, and at a time when the average viewer of mainstream cinema is a lot more willing to accept novelty than ever before, Kumar is going that extra mile by doing things differently. He will be seen next in Raksha Bandhan with Bhumi Pednekar, Ram Setu co-starring Jacqueline Fernandez and Nushrratt Bharuccha, OMG 2 – Oh My God 2, Selfiee (remake of Malayalam comedy-drama Driving Licence) and the Hindi remake of Tamil film Soorarai Pottru with Radhika Madan to name a few.

In a freewheeling chat, the actor talks about the “different” experience playing a king for the first time, controversies surrounding the film, pressures of social media and his take on the North-South ‘divide’ between film industries, language row and much more. Read on:

This is the first time you will be seen in a historic character, what went into prepping and what sort of physical training you had to undergo?

The film’s director Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi did all kinds of research and it took him about 18 years on the script. Unfortunately, no producer was ready to make the film. Aditya Chopra stepped in and I got the chance. But when they approached me I was a little wary about playing Prithviraj Chauhan. From the history books he appears to be a little stout so I felt I won’t suit the role. Then Dr Dwivedi explained to me that this is somebody’s imagination and his research made him believe that Prithviraj was athletic for the very reason that he fought 18 wars, each war would last for 20 to 25 days lasting 10 hours each day. So how could he be bulky, the director felt. Also, he must be wearing clothes, armours weighing at least 30 kilograms and he would be fighting with a sword weighing at least 20-22 kilograms. Once I was convinced I decided to play the ‘athletic’ king. But I am aware that a lot of people feel I don’t look the part but the explanation is very clear. Talking about physical training, I learnt a little bit of sword fighting and that’s it. I had to do horse-riding which I already knew.

Was your process any different for this film as an actor?  

No, I just followed my director’s vision. Even while mouthing dialogues, pauses required, I followed the way Dr Dwivedi visualised it. I used to say the exact words that he had written. I didn’t want to do any kind of homework myself. I had completely surrendered to the director. My only contribution to the film is that I didn’t do any contribution.

What kind of creative liberties, if any, are taken? Also, with historical films there is always this fear that a certain section of society might take offence or might misconstrue a particular portion or scene. Did all these thoughts come to your mind while filming?

I had Dr Dwivedi) to take care of that. He is in touch with many of the historians. Everything has been checked by him thoroughly. His knowledge is much bigger than the combined knowledge of mine and yours. He didn’t take any creative liberty because he went according to the book, as per Prithviraj Raso (a Braj language epic poem about the life of the Rajput king. It is attributed to Chand Bardai, who according to the text was a court poet of the king). So there was no possibility of any kind of mistake; he was on it for 18 years! He has been creative director on two of my earlier films – OMG:Oh My God! and upcoming Ram Setu.

You said you surrendered yourself to the director. But were there any inhibitions in his mind considering you are a superstar?

No, I never felt that way. I kept doing what he told me to. Also, I didn’t make him feel that I am a superstar who has done 150 films while this one is his third directorial.

You have portrayed real life characters many times but how different was this experience ?

It was a very different experience for me because I have never played king before. You won’t believe the kind of man he was. At that time he followed gender equality. He got married to Sanyogita and told her that she will sit on the same throne as him and also rule the kingdom along with him. People revolted against him about how they can take orders from a woman. But he didn’t relent. The other amazing fact is how he used to forgive his enemies. He would talk to his foes with a lot of respect. I can’t believe my luck that I got to play this king. When I was in school my mom used to teach me History. How I wish she was alive…she could have seen the film.

You are probably one of the few heroes who has worked with many beauty pageant title holders like Aishwarya Rai, Priyanka Chopra, Lara Dutta and now Manushi Chhillar. How was it working with Manushi?

She is a much evolved actor. For the first film you get to play the role of a queen and it is not an easy role. To play a girl next door is much easier. To have that poise, that dignity, aura…she performed very well. She trained for several months with the director on how to speak and play the part. She has worked really very hard and she has a great memory. Not just her own dialogues, she would learn mine and all other actors’ dialogues.

All these ladies, these beauty pageant winners have done very well and I hope Manushi, too, does well in her career. I distinctly remember my earlier photo shoots that I did with Aishwarya for a film magazine. But why only these ladies, I also enjoyed working with Ayesha Jhulka, Mamta Kulkarni, Bipasha Basu...I worked with practically everyone.

How is it working with newcomers today? Do you think they are more prepared?

Yes, definitely. They can actually make you feel bad. They are exposed to so many things in life which we were not. I learn a lot from youngsters, I learn from my son also, he teaches me so much. Their way of looking at relationships between father-son, brother-sister is also very interesting and different.

You have always maintained that you don’t do films which take more than 40 days in the making. How much time did Prithviraj take in completion? Period dramas are usually longer but this film as you said is just about two hours? Was that intentional?

No, it wasn’t intentional. We have focused only on very important aspects of his life. Talking about finishing films early, do you know how much time Tom Cruise completed Mission Impossible which is one of the biggest action films? He wrapped up in only 53 days because the director had done his homework well. He knew that he required the hero for so long. Prithviraj was shot for about 110 days and with me they shot for 42-43 days. Nothing was wasted, every shot of mine is there in the film.

There were some reports claiming that the lion scenes in Prithviraj were created by CGI..

The Lion scenes are not created by CGI at all. They are real. I won’t disclose any further details because even in my promos, I have just given one shot otherwise there are umpteen number of things that happened. It is a deliberate attempt not to show anything about it because I want you guys to go to the theatres and enjoy what exactly happened with the lion. And this is the truth about how Samrat fought. I could have easily made my promo more appealing and thrown in some great shots, but I didn’t want to do that.

Prithviraj is positioned as a Pan India offering because it is also releasing in regional languages like Telugu and Tamil on the same day. Hindi films are not doing great currently; do you think this will break the jinx?

I have no idea what is going to happen. I hope every film works, it is important for the Hindi film industry. But I don’t understand these terms like Pan India.

While everybody from the film industry has been saying that they work in Indian films…you have also done few crossover and different language films yet there still seems to be that divide between south and Hindi films. We recently saw the spat between Ajay Devgn and Kannada actor Kichcha Sudeep on social media over the status of Hindi as national language …What’s your take on this?

I don’t believe in this divide. I hate it when somebody says South industry and North industry. We are one industry. The day we understand that we are all one, things will start working much better. Today somebody asked me why I work in remakes and I asked why shouldn’t I, what is the problem? My Oh My God was remade in Telugu and it worked in both the places. I did the remake of Rowdy Rathore that again worked both in South as well Bollywood, so what is the problem? Some object to remixing songs, why shouldn’t we do it, we are doing both original and remix. I fail to understand. If we take the rights of a good film that is made in the South and that film works, what is the issue? People say we don’t have good stories, or talent over here and I say, of course, we have, why are we getting into all that? Special 26 was made in many languages later on. How many stories do we have? There is hero, then comes villain comes, hero and he have fights…it is the same and it will continue like this but now everybody wants to become a critic and have to say something on twitter. Let’s not get carried away. But unfortunately that is happening and all of us are becoming its shikaar(victim). Then the media raises questions based on these posts on social media and we have to answer. It has become one big circle which is really wrong. Then we raise issues on languages. All the languages are great and beautiful whether Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. It is so unfortunate that we keep dividing ourselves.

Now that you say everybody has become a critic, does social media criticism and trolling affect you?

I have to do what I have to do otherwise social media will start ruling you and you have to learn the technique of ignoring these things. You have to be honest to yourself; your conscience is more important whether the film works or doesn’t work. Stop getting worried about people’s criticism. Yes, there are some critics I respect. You should be honest enough to adapt to the fact that what these critics are saying is true and I should take their advice.

Some of your colleagues like Sanjay Dutt, Salman Khan feel that heroism in our films in Bollywood is missing, which South is lapping up and the result of which is seen at the box office. Also, many feel that we need more directors who can helm good commercial masala entertainers and that we have only Rohit Shetty who makes such films. What do you feel?  

Of course, our films do have masala, heroism..all the ingredients are there but it happens that some films work, some don’t. It is just a phase, it is just a flavour and we should not do bhed chaal (mob mentality), we should have our own style, we should do what we know. If you get a good heroic film, do it, and if you don’t then take up other good subjects. If you refuse films thinking there is no heroism, it is not larger-than-life so it won’t work, then you would be stupid to do so.

Do you sit down to analyse when your film doesn’t work at the box office, what could have gone wrong and what can be done in the future..?

I only sit down on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (to think) and on Monday I am back on the next project. If you try analysing too much you can go crazy. Then you become insecure and it hampers your thought process when you start selecting your future scripts / projects because you have analysed so much that you start over thinking and as a result you may refuse good projects that may be coming your way. This is what my experience has been so far.

How challenging it gets for you to fulfil the demand of your fans? They may want to see in a certain avatar…

It is challenging but then you have to come out of your comfort zone which I realised about 15 years back when I was doing only action films. It becomes very difficult because your fans are so used to seeing you in a particular avatar or role and they love it. But then, you have to show them a different side of your skills and personality. It is like how children want fast food and they refuse to have vegetables but you have to start feeding them healthy food and that is how in later years they get used to karela and tinda. It is a difficult job but you have to give them a different recipe and offer something different like how I have to give to my fans and see to it that they adapt to that as well. When I did Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, nobody approved saying how can I make a romantic film on it. When I did Padman, everybody wondered what I was up to. When I did Airlift, people just couldn’t understand the title and said I should have a Hindi title. I had to convince people that the title was apt.

You recently said that you have had a string of flops earlier in your career but yet you kept getting work because you have always been a producer’s actor. How did you deal with failure then and how do you deal with failure now?

Dealing with failure remains the same. I have had a string of flops a couple of times, once 13 to 14 films flopped in a row, then another time eight to nine films didn’t work. And like I said earlier, you can feel bad on Friday, Saturday, Sunday but by Monday you have to bounce back, pick yourself up and go for your next shoot and be happy on the set. You cannot go there with a sad face, you have to enjoy yourself. Good films can be only made when you enjoy the process. I would advise the same to every professional.

There are two more releases on 3 June – Mahesh Babu and Adivi Sesh’s Major and Kamal Haasan starrer Vikram…

All films should do well. Why should I say that their films should be stopped? When other films (regional) do good business or our films here do well, it is all linked to our earnings. We cannot live without each other. We have to be united but unfortunately we are not, we always talk about dividing but it is okay we will learn.

Is there any other historical biography that you would like to do?

I’d like to play Sambhaji Maharaj (son of Chhatrapati Shivaji, the founder of the Maratha Empire).

Have you seen Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2?

No, I haven’t seen it yet. But yes I know the film’s story and I will watch the film very soon.

Prithviraj releases on 3 June in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

Seema Sinha is a Mumbai-based mainstream entertainment journalist who has been covering Bollywood and television industry for over two decades. Her forte is candid tell-all interviews, news reporting and newsbreaks, investigative journalism and more. She believes in dismissing what is gossipy, casual, frivolous and fluff.

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