I need a younger person than Akshay Kumar: Sajid Khan

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NEW DELHI - After teaming up with superstar friend Akshay Kumar in the hits “Heyy Babyy” and “Housefull”, Bollywood director Sajid Khan now plans to move on to another, younger face for his next.

“Akshay is not going to be in my next film. We need a much younger person for the lead role,” said Sajid, who rules out the possibility of roping in a fresh face for the film.

“We are also not looking for a fresh face because the script requires an established face. Nothing has been finalised yet. We are still scripting the project,” he told IANS on phone from Mumbai.

Sajid’s new film will mark his parting of ways with not just Akshay but also his friend Sajid Nadiadwala, who produced his two projects. He is now collaborating with producer Vashu Bhagnani, who made films like “Do Knot Disturb” and “Kal Kissne Dekha”.

Sajid is also shifting to another genre.

“This time I am moving away from comedy. I am doing an action adventure drama. My film will have lots of action, but no violence. I like to make films which a family can sit and watch together,” he said.

The 38-year-old says Indian filmmakers must stop competing with Hollywood in terms of action content because “we do not have the budgets to match them”.

According to him, it is more important to intersperse emotions with action to appeal to the Indian audience. And that he feels is the sole reason why the violence and bloodshed in Sunny Deol’s hit film “Gadar - Ek Prem Katha” worked.

“I strongly believe that besides having good action, action-oriented films need to have a good baseline for the script… feel action without emotion doesn’t work. I can understand how technologically advanced action has become in our movies, but unless there is emotion or a strong story, it doesn’t work. With every action sequence, there must be an emotion to justify it,” said Sajid.

Even though he feels that Aamir Khan’s “Ghajini” was excessively violent, Sajid says it struck a chord because of the love angle in the story, making the film one of the biggest hits in recent times.

Apart from helming movies, Sajid is busy being one of the judges on Colors’ reality show “India’s Got Talent - Khoj 2″.

“I am proud that I got a chance to associate with such a good show. The best part about the concept is that you can be of any age, height, weight, sex and with any talent - you will still get a chance and a platform to show your talent,” he said.

Sajid, who is co-judging the show with actors Kirron Kher and Sonali Bendre, is particularly in awe of a young boy, who does break dancing just with the upper half of his body - using his back and neck - because he is physically challenged.

“The spirit of these participants is so strong that it is inspiring and a complete joy being on the show,” he said.