Akshay Kumar has a knack for bringing total entertainment on screen, often with recurring co-stars. In Welcome to the Jungle, he goes one step further, acting alongside 30 actors to not just deliver laughter but also scale. The film follows a corrupt billionaire who attempts to launder his black money by funding an exorbitantly expensive flop movie. In this conversation, Kumar speaks about playing a Bhojpuri actor in the film, backing producers, and reuniting with longtime co-star Suniel Shetty.
You play the role of a Bhojpuri actor in Welcome to the Jungle. Earlier, Bhojpuri actors were taken lightly by Bollywood, but these days many Bhojpuri actors are gaining popularity in Hindi cinema.
Welcome to the Jungle is a film within a film, and I am playing a Bhojpuri actor who bags a project. I don’t remember ever sidelining any actors, and I don’t agree to the accusation that Bhojpuri actors are taken lightly. An actor is an actor whether he belongs to the Bhojpuri industry or Hindi or Gujarati films. We even have a dialogue in the film where we claim that Bhojpuri actors are better than Hollywood ones, and we truly mean that. I would also like to add that we have also shot a Bhojpuri song, and we had great fun doing that. We shot for an entire day, and the song was choreographed by Ganesh Acharya. I was down with 102-degree fever, but I still enjoyed doing the song.
You have had a good camaraderie with Suneil Shetty in almost 14 films. And now, you are back with him in Welcome to the Jungle. Do you think audiences will still like it given that films lately are not doing so great?
We have worked together in many films, and we want this film to work for us too. I don’t agree that films are not doing well. Sometimes the filmmakers go over budget while making a film; that is when they suffer. I have had many opportunities to work with producer and director Yash Chopra. He had a simple motto in life; he would always tell me—in Punjabi—that if the budget of the film is a hit, automatically the film will be a hit. That was his mantra for making films. A director and writer can go wrong at times, but the film can be saved if it is made with the right budget. Most of my films have always been made within a tight budget. I make sure that the producer does not lose his money. As far as my camaraderie with Suniel Shetty, almost 99 per cent of the films that we have done together have been hits. I pray this one will also do well.
Everyone has their own mindset. There is no fixed formula to prove that multi-starrer films will do well or solo leads will do better. Ultimately, it’s the audience who decidesAkshay Kumar
How important is it for actors to support a producer while making a film?
The producer, actor, and director must understand each other while they work together. I didn’t want the producer to bear the brunt of the budget, so I have not charged him a single penny. I have just been an investor on this film. It has been made within a budget of 115 crores. The most important aspect is controlling the budget. There are around 30 actors in this film, and it’s been shot in 75 shifts.
You have done all kinds of roles—dramatic, intense, comedy. What do you enjoy the most now?
There’s nothing in particular as such. When I came into the industry, I took up only action-oriented roles. People pointed that I was doing only action films; so I decided to do different kinds of roles and genres. I kept on discovering myself film after film. I met so many people and did comedy films with them, and then I experimented with romantic films and also did social ones. It really depends on what is offered to me.
What was the atmosphere on the sets earlier and how different is it now?
Not much of a change. We shot with 300 people then, and we are doing so even today. I still carry home-cooked food on the sets.
Today, the violence in action films is brutal. What do you have to say about it?
It all depends on the films. Such brutality may be the subject and the need of the film. Welcome to the Jungle, on the other hand, does not need such brutality. It’s a clean film. I enjoy films where the action is not too gory. Such action is fine to a certain limit, but when it is limitless, I don’t enjoy it.
Salman Khan had once said that as contemporaries, you all did a lot of multi-starrer films, but the younger generation is scared to experiment with them. Do you feel that youngsters are insecure?
It’s not about being insecure. Everybody has their own mindset, and they feel that what they have decided is right. I feel that we should try our hand at everything, but the younger generation may not respond to that idea. There is no fixed formula to prove that multi-starrer films will do well or solo leads will do better. There is no hit formula for any film; ultimately, it’s the audience who decides.
How challenging is it to do comedy?
It’s not easy to make people laugh. Look at Johnny Lever; he has been the king of comedy. He has been performing flawlessly for so many years. I have watched him in his shows when he performed at Shanmukhananda and Bhaidas halls earlier. It’s a delight to watch him enact his scenes.