Akshay: The fights are like choreography

Akshay Kumar is among the most dependable Bollywood actors we have today. Apart form SRK, he's the man with the Midas touch, as proven by his four hits in 2007. Now, the actor is back with his first release of 2008, Tashan. He talks about working with Yash Raj again after Dil To Pagal Hai, his love for Parkour and his co-stars.

Excerpts:

What made you decide to do this film?
The fact that it was a Yash Raj film excited me. I have not worked with them for a long time. It's been a gap of 12 to 13 years. The second thing was the script and my character Bachchan Pandey, which I haven't played before. The film is very character-driven and the story had a great graph. It is quite unconventional and that is what excited me.

What was it like working with Peter Hinnes and doing an action film after a long time?
Peter Hinnes is from Vietnam he has settled in south India and works in south Indian films. He is the most well-known action director there though this is his first Hindi film. He has done some great job and I can vouch for it because I am an action hero. I know when I work with an action director how good he is. He made me do a little bit of Parkour in this film. (Parkour, or the art of displacement, is a French sport which practices movement from one point to another as efficiently and quickly as possible, jumping over buildings and fences.) I had to learn it because I am not that trained into it. He got this idea when I showed him a little bit of stunts so when you watch this film you can see a bit of Parkour, that's also one of the highlights of the film. It will be fun watching the action of this film. If you see the fights, you' feel it's more of a choreography, because of the environment which we created. It was great working with Peter.

Any one memorable incident during the shoot of the film?
The entire film has been memorable, shooting in difficult terrain like Ladakh where because of high altitude lot of people had fallen sick. But despite that the shoot continued. Then we shot in Rajasthan in extreme heat and over that we had to wear a jacket. Anil Kapoor had to wear long coats I am sure it was a memorable moment for him too. Then we went to Kerala where it just did not stop raining. We had to take many breaks in between the shots because of the rains. The director Victor and the entire crew worked very hard to shoot the film so the entire film has been memorable. After long time I was working with Saif Ali Khan, my kid brother and Kareena with whom I have worked very often and of course Mr Kapoor. It's my second movie with him so it was a lot of fun working with all of them.

Can you tell us something about the character you play in the film?
I play the character of Bachchan Pandey from Kanpur who happens to watch two-three films like The Godfather and gets very inspired. Alongside, he works for as a recovery agent. How this character falls in love is what it is all about.