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'I found Tees Maar Khan very difficult to watch'
"Farah Khan has three kids but when it comes to work she has the stamina of 10 men," says Akshay Kumar discussing his first film with the director whose earlier films Om Shanti Om and Main Hoon Naa were made for actor and producer Shah Rukh Khan featuring him in the lead.
Tees Maar Khan, the first Farah and Akshay collaboration, is co-produced by the star with UTV's Ronnie Screwvala and others will be released on December 24.
"We shot much of our film in the dust-blown villages. The days were really hot and humid, at times unbearably so," Akshay, who is promoting the film in New York, Toronto and several cities says speaking from his hotel room in New York.
"After giving my shots, I would go into my air-conditioned trailer and from there I could watch Farah continue to work oblivious to the weather, working with other artists and getting ready for another stint."
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'My character in this movie likes to steal but under no circumstance will he give it to the poor'
He is so happy working with Farah and her husband, Shirish Kunder who wrote the story that Akshay said next year he will work with them again on a film called Joker.
"Farah and I will produce the film which will be India's first 3D film and Shirish will direct it," he says. "I cannot discuss the details right now but it has nothing to do with Raj Kapoor's Mera Naam Joker."
This will be the second time he will be working with Shirish as director following his debut film Jaanemann which also starred Salman Khan and Preity Zinta.
"What drew me to Tees Maar Khan, apart from the fact that I would be working with Farah, is the story of a modern Robin Hood who is anything but the Robin Hood we have known," he says with a chuckle.
"My character in this movie likes to steal but under no circumstance will he give it to the poor."
'During the dubbing, Farah kept sending me home because I could not stop laughing'
Tees Maar Khan it is also a kind of fish out of water comic adventure, Akshay adds.
When a planned train robbery goes kaput, he and his sidekicks (Katrina Kaif and Akshay Khanna) are stranded in a village and have to keep the pretense of shooting a film alive.
"I am a conman in the film but what do I know about directing a film?" he says laughing. This is one of the many scary quandaries his character faces. "But the audience will have a blast," he continues.
"I have acted in many funny films," he adds. "But this is a comedy I found it very difficult to watch. During the dubbing, Farah kept sending me home because I could not stop laughing."
'I am in the movies for the commercial reasons'
How did the project start?
Over a year ago Farah came to meet him very early in the morning and said, "I want to make this film with you," he recalls. She outlined the story to him. "I was aware of the story because her husband had talked about it to me months earlier," he says.
In less than an hour after meeting Farah he was ready to sign the deal.
Did he wonder why she decided to make the film with him?
"You don't ask anything like that when you have got a lottery ticket," he says, laughing. "I have known Farah for over two decades and I admire her work as a director immensely."
He adds: "When an offer like this comes, you decide to go with the flow."
Would he have signed on the dotted line without having heard the story?
"I don't that," he says. "Never mind how well I know someone, I still like to get the details."
The best thing he admires in Farah, he continues, is that she makes commercial films that are filled with plenty of imagination.
"She seems to know very well indeed what the audiences want," he says. "I am in the movies for the commercial reasons. I have been around for 22 years and I have always been aware of the commercial angle. I want my films to reach a very wide audience. So does Farah."
'I have not seen any of my films lose money'
Some times he is lucky at the box office, occasionally he is not. His last film Action Replayy was a huge disappoint but he is not worried over his newest.
"I have produced half a dozen films," he says. "Touch wood, I have not seen any of these films lose money. In fact, some of them were super hits."
The buzz for Tees Maar Khan is very good.
"People are talking about it so often," he says. "There is a lot of curiosity about it in the media and in audiences. The music (by Vishal and Shekhar) has caught on. Sheila Ki Jawani has become a far bigger hit than we ever expected."
His next release will be a much sober film compared to Tees Maar Khan, he says. Patiala House brings him together with Nikhil Advani (Chandni Chowk to China) and pairs him with Anushka Sharma.
"The film focuses on a relationship between father and son," he says. "Quite often parents dream for their son or daughter. But what would happen if a son or daughter were to say, I have my own dreams. Don't dream for me.' "
The movie features Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia with the latter, who is Akshay's mother in law in real life, playing his mother.
For the time being though, he will have to spend days in promoting his newest film.
"It was a very smooth experience working on the film, we enjoyed the experience very much," he says. "Now I am keeping my fingers crossed."