Friendship back in flavour
ANUJ KUMAR
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Real life friends Akshay Kumar and Bobby Deol play pals in `Dosti' opening today.
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NO PRETENCE HERE: Akshay Kumar and Bobby Deol
Be it Jai and Veeru of "Sholay" or Mohan and Ramu of Satyen Bose's "Dosti," male bonding has always been a staple theme for Bollywood. This Friday, Suneel Darshan is at it again.
His "Dosti" stars Akshay Kumar and Bobby Deol. What is more, here the tagline `Friends Forever' has meaning as Bobby and Akshay are buddies in real life. So is Suneel, for it is Akshay's seventh film with the Darshan family (Suneel's brother Dharmesh is also a filmmaker), and Bobby also has been a regular in the Darshan scheme of things. "We met for the first time on the sets of `Ajnabee' and became friends forever. It is his simplicity that attracted me," says Bobby. Echoes Akshay, "I don't believe that there has to be similarity between two persons for friendship to click. In fact, friendship means accepting the other person as he is. There is no pretence in our relationship. We don't meet for months but whenever we do [there is] chemistry. Plus, our wives are friends and so are our kids."
Says Bobby, "That we both have a common man' s image might have worked in our favour but you don't choose friends according to conditions. It just clicks. People say Akshay steals scenes from his co-stars, but I have never faced this problem. We are spontaneous actors. Many times, particularly in comedy scenes, he has saved me from tricky situations."
Hard working
However, Bobby has an issue with Akshay: "He just works too hard and that at times makes me feel bad, for I can't match his propensity to be always in action." Akshay agrees, "This has been the case. Even my family members complain. It is only when I am ill, which is rarely the case, that I take a break."
Of late there has been a twist in the tale of friendship. Post "Dil Chahta Hai" the friendship concept has become more westernised, with directors doing away with the "I can die for my friend" feeling. Akshay, who firmly believes in the concept of friendship, says that the film will bring to the fore the conventional value of friendship. "The film has been made from the heart and has a universal appeal to it. It is not just for the multiplexes."
Bobby, on the other hand, is not happy with the way male friendship is being seen in society and cinema. "Today if you hold a man's hand in public you are considered to be an infidel. I come from a family where I have been taught to die for a friend in need."
On the career front, Akshay is on a high with his films, particularly comedies, doing well. This has been an especially good year for him with "Waqt" and "Garam Masala" doing well. Even when "Deewane Hue Pagal" flopped, the onus was not on him. Akshay may have taken time to understand that action has multiple meanings in cinema, but he has done it in style.
If in "Dhadakan" he proved he could make people sob with him, post "Hera Pheri" he has been continuously proving that he can effortlessly send the audience into splits.
Hardly any actor has gone through the kind of image shift he has. Last year he played a character sexually assaulted by a girl and people still lapped it up. "Aitraaz" was a rare case where casting against the image worked at the box office.
Akshay as usual doesn't want to go into the details. "I don't want to go into the hows... I am happy people came to see the character rather than Akshay. It is satisfying as an actor," he says. "When you start you can't take too many risks, particularly when you come from a non-film background. I wanted to establish myself and since I was trained in martial arts the action tag came naturally to me. With films like `Jaanwar' and `Sangharsh' I tried to change that. Fortunately people accepted me."
But the media still introduces him as an action star.
"I don't feel bad because that is my primary identity and I would love to do action again if a different script was offered to me."
Comedy expert
Talking about his evolution as a comedy expert, Akshay says it has to do with his upbringing in a middle class house in Delhi. "In Delhi people speak a very informal kind of language. I have tried to incorporate that old Delhi style in my mannerisms and dialogue delivery."
For Bobby the going has not been that fine at the box office. His last release "Barsaat" was also an average earner. "I no longer want to be rated according to hits and flops. From the beginning of my career I have been trying different roles so that I don't get slotted and will continue to do so."
He is peeved with the media for it calls him an action hero simply because his father and brother have done action films. "Somehow people think action heroes don't have to act. And if you have done two-three films of one genre, you get branded for the whole of your life. My father suffered because of this. That's why I made it a point to keep on doing different subjects. Then I was asked why don't you have any image like your father," quips Bobby.
Bobby feels his not knowing how to manipulate the media in his favour also has something to do with it. "Some actors just want to be seen in the media. I can't do this." For now he wants to ride down to Chandigarh, again for a family friend - Anil Sharma who has put the whole Deol family together in his forthcoming film "Apne".
"This is the first time that Papa (Dharmendra), Sunny bhaiya and I are working together. This is the story of a father who wants to see his sons achieve in life what he could not."
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