Presenting Akshay Kumar, the bowler

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MUMBAI - We’ve heard of actors carrying their roles home. But Akshay Kumar would be the first actor to take his part in “Patiala House” to the playing field. Getting trained as a bowler, Akshay says he is now almost as good as a national-level player.

“I’m working towards it. Practising my cricket gives me the biggest high,” Akshay said.

Akshay is rapidly becoming an expert bowler. “I am not yet good enough to play national-level cricket but I am getting there. I’ve been taking bowling lessons for ‘Patiala House’ from one of the best trainers. I’m trying get to a national level. I’m very sporty by nature. So it was quite easy for me to pick it up,” Akshay told IANS.

“Every morning I look forward to practising with Balwinder Singh Sandhu.”

Akshay trains in cricket for a couple of hours every day. “I’m getting good enough to play beyond the film. And I will very soon. I promise you.”

Directed by Nikhil Advani, “Patiala House” also stars Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia and Anushka Sharma.

Akshay reveals he has already worked with 52 directors and is still looking for filmmakers who can tap the best out of him.

“I’m still hungry. I want to work with directors who can help me tap emotions that I don’t know about,” the actor said.

Introspecting on his career, Akshay said: “I’m very happy with the kind of work I’m doing. I tried doing more serious films. But they were rejected. So I am back to comedy. Nikhil Advani’s ‘Patiala House’ is not a comedy. But it has comic portions. Priyadarshan’s ‘Khatta Meetha’ is a film on road mafia done in a light vein. That apart, I’m not signing any more films. I’ve been working the whole year and I need a break. Then I’ll be doing another film with Vipul Shah.”

So how was it like playing a loser in laugh riot “Housefull”?

“I enjoyed playing a loser more than any macho role I usually play. See, all us men are duffers underneath the swagger anyway. We may act cool for the ladies. But that’s all an act. If you take away my wife, my designer clothes and my flashy car, I’m just a scared little boy at heart. Without the support system we’re losers. In ‘Housefull’, I play an out-of-luck guy who gets caught in a crazy situation,” Akshay said candidly.

But the actor had a ball doing “Housefull”, where he has three wives.

“Not just the three ladies but also Riteish Deshmukh and Arjun Rampal. Riteish was great fun. Shooting was a playground with him around. He just cracks me up. We once put all the cutlery at the breakfast table in a hotel in Italy in Jiah Khan’s bag and told the waiter to check her bag. Jiah took it sportingly.

“Arjun Rampal too has great comic timing. Lara Dutta is such an elegant lady and yet she can be one of the boys when it comes to comedy,” he said.

In “Housefull”, he also got to pay homage to Mithun Chakraborty and Dharmendra.

“Director Sajid Khan’s sister Farah was doing the choreography. I suggested we put in the pelvic movements of Mithun-da and the extempore dance movements of Dharam-ji. It was my life-long ambition to dance like these two legends. They dance from their heart. I’m also a big fan of Dutt-Saab’s (Sanjay Dutt) dance movements. I remember how taken up I was when ‘Rocky’ released. He used to make his long hair dance,” the actor said.

So what about full-on actioners like the “Khiladi” series?

“I might do another ‘Khiladi’ film. Who knows about the future? I had said I’d never produce a film. Today I’m co-producing all my films, including Farah’s ‘Tees Maar Khan’,” Akshay said.

(Subhash K. Jha can be contacted at jhasubh@gmail.com)