History Celebrating Indian and Manushi with Akshay
It was blast from the past, in a filmi way, with actors Akshay Kumar and Manushi Chhillar opening up about getting inspired by Hindu emperor Prithviraj Chauhan when they visited the HT City office in Delhi to meet the winners of the Stars In The City contest. They revealed why they felt compelled to make the film, Samrat Prithviraj.
Starting off the chat with HT’s managing editor (entertainment) Sonal Kalra, Kumar stressed that he feels Samrat Prithviraj is relevant in the current times. “What he (Prithviraj Chauhan) did and how he did it… I was surprised to learn about his life story. He used to talk about women’s empowerment in that era. This is a film for our children and the future generations,” Kumar said.
The film marks Chhillar’s Hindi film debut (she was the winner of Miss World 2017 title). “Preparing for the role was more challenging than preparing to win a beauty pageant. Miss World was about being the best version of yourself, but this was about getting into the skin of another character,” she said.
Taking the conversation forward, Kumar shared his disappointment over not being able to attend the Cannes Film Festival as part of the Indian delegation after testing positive for Covid-19. He said, “Pheli baar toh kisi ne bulaya tha Cannes pe, woh bhi chance nikal gaya. I had all my outfits, flights ready, but I had to cancel.”
When a fan asked Kumar about working on quite a lot of south remakes, the actor said, “What is wrong in that? A lot of my films have been remade in the south film industries, and vice versa. Mujhe koi cheez achhi lagti hai toh I take it. There are some songs that I feel I should have done, and now I want to remake them, including Ek Din Teri Raahon Mein (Naqaab, 2007). I don’t see anything wrong in it.”