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Salman snores. Akshay chills.

July 23, 2014 17:13 IST
Salman Khan and Jacqueline Fernandez in Kick

They may be close friends, but Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar are very different from each other!

Bollywood’s summer movie season is about to pick up now that Ramadan is almost over.

The first big film to open soon is Kick -- an Eid release and what has become an annual Salman Khan event.

A press conference was held in the basement screening room at the Bryant Park Hotel, New York, and was organised by the film’s distributor, UTV.

As it usually happens at these press conferences, we did not learn much about the film, other than after all the action Khan’s character gets the real kick by seeing a little girl’s smile.

As it also happens at Khan’s press events, the star was in form, kidding around and making fun of the other guests.

Khan seemed to be very fond of Jacqueline Fernandez and in answering one question about what motivates him to go to work, he said he liked seeing his co-star on the set of the film.

The real butt of Khan’s jokes was Chetan Bhagat, one of India's best-selling writers.

Each time Bhagat would start to talk, responding to a question, Khan would pretend to sleep and snore.

He even said he did not like Bhagat when they started to work together, but now Bhagat had grown on the star.

Bhagat appeared very uncomfortable with all the jokes at his expense.

At one point when he started to answer a question, he first turned to Khan and said: “Now please don’t pretend to be sleeping.”

There was a strange chemistry between the two men. There was laughter, but there was also quite a lot of awkwardness.

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Salman snores. Akshay chills.

July 23, 2014 17:13 IST
Akshay Kumar and Tamannaah in It's Entertainment

Akshay Kumar -- who happened to be in New York City vacationing with his family -- took time off from his relaxing schedule to speak about It’s Entertainment, which opens on August 8.

Kumar was very prompt, arriving exactly at the scheduled time of 10 am on Saturday and much of the interview he focused on how important his vacations are to him, especially since he makes three, four films a year.

He also spoke about the fact that he only works eight hours a day. After eight hours, he is in his car heading home, he said.

Plus his routine includes waking up at 4 am and going for a jog along the Juhu beach in Mumbai.

In It’s Entertainment, Kumar plays opposite a dog, a Golden Retriever whose real name is Junior. Kumar’s father in the film leaves all his wealth to the dog instead of his son. The rest of the film has Kumar battling the dog for what he believes is rightfully his inheritance.

Kumar said he enjoyed playing opposite the dog who would perfectly follow instructions and give his best in two or three takes. He compared this experience with working opposite a baby in the hit film Heyy Babyy.

While comedy comes naturally to Kumar, he emphasised that he wants to do something new and different to be challenged. His new goal is to play a negative role in the near future, he added.