“I keep myself alive by not settling for what’s comfortable or easy” says Akshay Kumar. He has been featured in the latest issue of GQ India magazine’s cover story Akshay Evolution.
On the cover he has donned a Nivedita Saboo Couture Suit, a zip up jumper from Missoni and Carrera sunglasses.
“The only thing that attracts audiences is change, because it’s intriguing. On my part, I keep myself alive by not settling for what’s comfortable or easy,” he said to the question how have you managed to stay relevant for 25 years in such a brutal business.
As he looks back at his first decade in Bollywood Akshay feels he wasn’t acting at all. “I was running a martial arts school on screen. I caught a lucky break with Priyadarshan’s Hera Pheri, and then things began to change.”
The country’s only non-Khan superstar’s first decade was the Khiladi days he tells GQ. “I was only doing action. In the second decade, I tried my hand at other things – comedy and romance – and tried to get the directors and producers to see me in another light, to listen, and understand, and give me different work.”
The hero who made comedy fun went on to do Hera Pheri one, two and three. The first film of the series became one of the biggest box office earners of the time and a cult classic among the Indian audience. The series was the twenty-ninth highest grossing film series in Bollywood.
Akshay feels that the pace of change has increased for him. As he crosses fifty years of age he wants to do something entirely different with each film. “Earlier I’d experiment every 3 or 4 years. This decade is about pushing my limits and changing with every film.”