No box office pressure for Akki

Actor Akshay Kumar says he doesn’t care about how much his movies earn at the box office

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ctor Akshay Kumar (right) says he prefers to stay away from the pressures of the box office by taking up characters which challenge him as a performer.

“Box-office numbers are a pressure. And that is what I don’t want. So, I do a film like Baby, which has a limited audience and there are no songs,” he says. “Many people warned me against it because songs are an integral part of Hindi cinema. It might affect the trade of the film by approximately ` 40-`50 crores. But I didn’t pay heed to it. I wanted to give something new to my audience. If I will think about box-office collection, I will not be able to do diverse films,” adds Kumar.

The 47-year-old actor considers his latest release, which is an action drama, as his toughest film, thanks to all the hardcore action required for certain scenes in the flick.

“This movie was not an easy one to make. We worked hard. We started preparing for the film five months before the shooting,” says Kumar. “We got punches on our faces because the fight sequences in the film are mostly contact fights,” he adds.

Directed by Karan Malhotra of Agneepath (2012) fame, the movie also stars actors Sidharth Malhotra, Jacqueline Fernandez and Jackie Shroff. It is a remake of the 2011 Hollywood film, Warrior.

Box office numbers are a pressure. And that is what I don’t want. So, I do a film like Baby, which has a limited audience

Akshay Kumar, actor