He may have done a spate of patriotic and issue-based films recently, but don’t slot Akshay Kumar into a category just yet. The actor says he is changing his gear by doing comedy and potboilers next. “I hate getting tagged. I don’t like people telling me that ‘He does good action or he keeps doing patriotic stuff’. I feel suffocated when they try to put me in a corner, I feel like running away from it. I hate it. That’s why I’m doing films like ‘Housefull 4’, ‘Hera Pheri 3’, ‘Kesari’, ‘Good News’ and a horror-comedy,” he said.
Akshay has booked the Independence Day weekend in Bollywood for some years with a release and this year is no different as he releases patriotic sports drama “Gold”. “I don’t do patriotic films to prove a point, I do it because the stories are so beautiful… I watched ‘Gold’ for the second time last night and I was blown away. We knew that we were making a sports drama but we didn’t think it would turn out to be such a commercial film,” he added.
While most of the big stars stick to one or two releases a year, Akshay has always managed to give three-four films a year, which he credits to time management. “I never find it difficult to switch characters. Once the costume is off, and the film is over, I move to the next. I am not one of those who lock themselves in a room for a month to prepare for a role. I can’t do that. People who talk about the in-depth process of getting into the skin of the character, I think, are lying. If the look is right, 70 per cent of the job is done,” he quipped.
Akshay says his work ethic has helped him get through difficult times in Bollywood as producers trusted him even when he had over a dozen flops to his name. “Once I had 16 flops but I still had four more films (to release). Not because I was a director’s actor (yes, you have to be that) but because I was a producer’s actor. The producer is the one who invests money. One of them said, ‘It’s a two-hero film. This guy is fine. He is punctual, he does an okay job and he’ll do action and all’,” Akshay said recalling an incident from his early career.
“I believe in long-term thinking. I believe you have to be a producer’s actor first, then the director’s actor,” he added.