#Akkians news update: Akshay Kumar is sitting inside his trailer – cross-legged on the floor – with the veteran actor Anupam Kher and Rana Daggubati. The three actors look ever-so-slightly dehydrated – they’ve spent all day shooting at “the bridge to nowhere”, or Hudariyat Bridge, in 45-degree heat. The three actors star inBaby, a thriller directed by Neeraj Pandey which is due out early next year. Kumar, Kher and Daggubati have been in the emirate for about nine days, filming at Al Ain airport, the Qasr desert, and in Bateen by the new bridge, where we’ve caught up with them for a quick chat after lunch on Wednesday, Sept 24. “I like filming in the UAE,” says Kumar, who is dressed in jogging bottoms and a denim shirt. He stretches his legs and gets comfortable, and Kher drapes an arm around his neck. “It’s easy to get permissions, everyone is friendly, and they pull out all stops to accommodate our requests,” says Kumar. “Unlike Mumbai, but it’s not because of the crowds. Just getting the necessary permissions to do anything in that city is impossible. They refuse to close off roads or buildings. Simply impossible.” The actor, who plays an intelligence officer inBaby, says he’s done exactly what the director Pandey wanted. “There’s not much scope for improvisation when you’re working with him,” says the actor. “I follow his direction – it’s his vision, in the end. And he’s a superb director.” Kher agrees: “He’s one of the best. I told Pandey, I have to be in all his films. He nearly didn’t cast me in this one but I had my way in the end.” But why is the film – which is being promoted as a thriller – calledBaby? Does it have anything to do with Kumar’s 2007 comedyHeyy Babyy, I ask? “What!,” says Kumar. “Don’t ask Pandey that! He won’t like it! As for the title, you’ll have to watch the film to find out.” He does reveal that Abu Dhabi is the setting for a “fictional Middle-Eastern country called Al Dera”, and, when we visited, the set had a couple of “police cars” sporting the words “Al Dera Police” in English and Arabic. Kumar also tells us that an ambulance featured in the scene. When we meet, Kumar and Rana Daggubati have just returned from filming action sequences all day; Kumar especially has a reputation for doing his own stunts, most of them quite dangerous. I ask him if he ever gets it right in a single take, and explain that my son wanted to know. “We try to do the best we can,” he answers. “Sometimes it happens, other times we have to keep at it until we get it right. It’s not easy, but I love action films, more than all the other genres.” “How old is your son? Twelve, you said? Don’t let your son try those stunts,” interrupts Kher, a serious look on his face, while Daggubati nods vigorously. “Oh, yeah,” says Kumar. “Very dangerous. He can watch but he shouldn’t do them.” Daggubati chimes in, saying that he’s had fun working with Kumar on the action sequences, and that the two of them arm-wrestled while on set the previous day – and Kumar won. Kher nods, and adds that it’s been “pretty hot out there – I was watching them arm-wrestle, while in my make-up and wig,” he says with a straight face. “But this [Bateen] is not as bad as it was in the Qasr desert. Compared to that, this is Switzerland.” I tell Kumar that he may be good at action, but he’s pretty amazing at comedy, too, and he laughs. “I like doing comedy,” he shrugs. “I’ve done a lot of comic films in the past few years, but now it’s time for more action films, it’s what I really like to do.” The cast and crew arrived in the UAE last week, and within hours Kumar had tweeted an image of himself standing by a helicopter in what looks like Abu Dhabi’s Liwa desert. The caption read: ““Flew 2 Abu Dhabi after my Son’s 12th Birthday dinner! This chopper is now takin me in2 the depths of the desert for #Baby ;)”. Kumar and Kher wrapped up their shoot in Abu Dhabi today, while Daggubati will stay on for a few more days with the 100-member unit that has travelled with them. Kumar says he will be back in Abu Dhabi in May next year to film Airlift, a Hindi drama set during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 03:42:22 +0000
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