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The son rise

Akshaye Khanna tells Anuj Kumar he prefers his work to do the talking

Photo: S. Subramanium

Intense! Akshaye Khanna admits he didn’t know in his ‘conscious memory’ that somebody called Harilal Gandhi existed

When most stars want to be in the limelight 24X7, Akshaye Khanna is one actor who evades media attention…including posing for pictures. “It makes me conscious. I am not introvert but my social skills are weak. I also believe that an actor has to be himself. There is no point in aping others. Public relations can’t take you anywhere if your films are not doing well. Even a hundred interviews won’t help. I just want to be a working actor.”

His Naqaab has just opened in theatres and Akshaye calls it a plot-driven film. “Here all the three characters have a past. You won’t be able to predict what’s going to happen next till the last sequence…typi cally Abbas-Mustan. And no, it’s not a copy or sequel of Humraaz.” Akshaye says he doesn’t mind if the girl in his life has a past. “If a boy can have a past, why can’t a girl? It’s time we steered c lear of double standards in real life.”

But it is Feroz Khan’s Gandhi My Father releasing next month that makes the reticent actor open up. “It’s one film that has stretched my acting abilities to the limit.” Akshaye plays Harilal Gandhi, the eldes t son of Mahatma Gandhi. “There were not many reference points for the character, as history has almost forgotten the man. We see the great grandsons of the Mahatma around us but when somebody says he had four sons, we ask, really?” Akshaye admits he didn’t even know in his ‘conscious memory’ that somebody called Harilal Gandhi existed. “Feroz had done so much research that I just needed to follow him. He gave me the biography of Harilal by Chandulal Dalal and showed two rare pictures of his. Since nobody knows how he looked, I didn’t need to copy his persona. What I have tried is to absorb his spirit.” Akshaye feels the good thing about the film is it’s not judgemental, though “it is very easy to take sides in such a film.”

Son of Vinod Khanna, Akshaye says he always wanted to be an actor. “I have grown up playing on the sets. My childhood dream has been going to a shoot with my father in a big car. To me acting was the coolest profession.” So when are the Khannas doing an Apne? “It’s all about finding the right script. See it took Sunny 25 years to find a script. I am just 13 years old in the profession.”

Going back in time, Akshaye says he was too young when his father left the film industry at the height of his career to discover spirituality. “What I know is all this talk of him being the greatest competition for Amitabh Bachchan started once he left the country.”

In the season of remakes Akshaye wants somebody to redo Amar Akbar Anthony, with Abhishek, Ranbir and him in the lead.

On being selective in his choice of roles, Akshaye says, “I am always like that but today it has become a trend. Be it Aamir or Salman, nobody does more than two films a year…even Akshay Kumar! Actors have realised quality can’t be maintained with quantity. I am in good books of most of the directors and I have overheard actors cribbing about the variety of roles I get.”

Later this year Akshaye will be seen with Madhuri Dixit in her comeback film Aaja Nachle.

“It’s a small role but working with Madhuri is a delight. She is like a chocolate, a treat which is given to a child to play with.”

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