Akshay Kumar on bouncing back from Bachchhan Paandey flop: ‘You can’t carry around your sad face everywhere’

Akshay Kumar, after being reinfected with Covid-19 recently, is back promoting his next film. After appearing in Bachchhan Paandey, which flopped at the box office, he will next be seen in the period drama Prithviraj.
Akshay in a recent media interaction spoke about the film, which is directed Dr Chandra Prakash Dwivedi. He also opened up about how he coped with the failure of his last film, and gave his two cents on the ongoing national language debate.
About fighting Covid-19 once again, Akshay said, “I am doing very well! I am fine, absolutely fine, I rested for four- five days. I guess everybody is going to get it. What happens in my profession is, when you go to office you can wear a mask, unfortunately I cannot (wear a mask while shooting). We interact with so many people, actors, so the load is so much of the virus (that one can be infected easily). There is also no option of working from home, however I remember when the pandemic had just hit, I shot for six-seven ads sitting at home.”

During the interaction, Akshay was asked if he thinks that Prithviraj has the potential to be Bollywood’s pan-India offering as the film is releasing in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. To this, he said, “This word ‘pan-India’ films and all, woh meri samajh ki bahar hai, (I don’t understand it). All I want is all the films to work, and that’s about it.”
Asked about his thoughts on the language divide and the debate over Hindi being the national language of India. He said, “I don’t believe in this divide. I hate it when somebody says south industry or north industry, we are all a common industry. I think we should stop asking this question. It is important that we understand that this is how the Britishers came and divided us, they invaded us and ruled us. We don’t seem to have learnt our lesson, we are still not understanding this. The day we understand that we are all one industry, I think things will start working much better.”

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He then shared how he has been questioned for being a part of remakes. He said, “I was recently questioned why I am doing two remakes. To which I say, why shouldn’t I? What is the problem in it? My O My God was remade in Telugu, the film worked here as well as there, I did their Rowdy Rathore, it worked there as well as here. So, why does anyone have an issue with that? People have a problem with songs being remixed, why? We are making originals also and remakes also. If there is a good south Indian film and we are taking the rights and remaking here, what’s the issue? People are saying we don’t have talent here, of course we have talent here, but if we have liked a story then why can’t we remake it in Hindi?”
“Why can’t we make remakes? Why can’t we just have one industry? Why do we need a south industry and a north industry? Then we talk about ‘our language’ and ‘their language’, all our languages are good, all of us are speaking in our mother tongue, and all our ‘mothers’ tongues’ are beautiful, whether it is Tamil, Telugu or Hindi. Why are we making it (a big issue)? We have witnessed 250 years of slavery, we still don’t understand. We all have to be united on this front. The sad fact is that we are not, but we should. But, we’ll learn and unity will strive,” Akshay added.

Akshay’s last outing, the comedy caper Bachchhan Paanday did not perform as well as expected at the box office. So how does he deal with failure, and does that affect his choice of films? Akshay, said, “Dealing with failure is the same. I’ve not just had 13-14 flops, there was again a time in middle where my 8-9 films flopped. I always say you can feel bad for a flop from Friday to Sunday, on Monday you have to pick yourself up and go do another film, and be very happy on the set. You can’t carry around your sad face everywhere. You have to go and enjoy yourself, your work. Good films are only made because you enjoy the film.”
On being asked if he is feeling the pressure of box office clashes because Prithviraj is being released with two major South Indian films, Vikram and Major, he said, “Good! I just want all these films to work. How can I say inki rok lo (stop their film), sabki chalein (everybody’s films should work). What is important is that films work, when films work, business happens and lots of lives are dependent on this industry. So all films should work.”
When asked if he thinks that heroism and masala in South Indian films is what’s missing in Bollywood films today, he said, “I think we should just stick to what we know. Of course, we have all of that in our films, we have heroism, masala. Right now some films have not worked. It is just a matter of time, things will change soon.”
“But what I also feel is that humain bhedchaal nahi karni chaahiye (we shouldn’t have a mob mentality), we should walk our own walk. If you get heroism wali film, do it, if not, do what good is coming to you. But if you reject a film just because a film offered to you doesn’t have heroism or something like that, then you’re a fool,” Akshay concluded.