Akshay wants to play Basanti in ‘Sholay’

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Mala

@Malashetty

Voyager

Posted: 19 years ago

Akshay wants to play Basanti in 'Sholay' remake!

With Suneel Darshan's 'Dosti' set for a release this month, we get the actor talking on friendships and relationships

First things first. As widely reported (or was it concocted for mileage?), Akshay Kumar and mentor Suneel Darshan didn't really have a rift. Or so it seems. The filmmaker says that he can just laugh at the reports. Akshay Kumar, too, isn't the least bothered either. Rather, he says that 'Dosti' has been a great experience for him. Especially since he is an emotional person at heart.
"Friends mean a lot to me. I think it is a wonderful relation you share with a person. You might not be related by blood, but it is a bigger emotional bonding," he explains. The actor says that while enacting, he didn't require any special effort since, "I share a great rapport with Bobby (Deol) and that translated well on screen." He adds that he could relate to the film because friendship comes naturally to him.
But does he catch up with his old pals? "Of course, I do. Most of my friends have remained with me throughout - like a friend in Canada drops in every month." Ask him whether he misses any friend from school or college days and he laughs, "Not really - I get pissed rather than miss them."
The talk veers towards his newly discovered funny bone, which has been well documented by now. Doesn't he get bored? "Yeah, a lot has already been written. I must really thank writer Neeraj Vora for helping me discover my funny bone. He just put some chemical in my body and voila, it worked," says Kumar, pointing out that he worked with Vora in a super-flop film called 'Khiladi 420.'
Getting a bit serious (he was in a satirical mood throughout, besides stressing that his publicist be with him during the entire conversation), he says, "Frankly, I think my comic timing is a result of my interaction with my uncles, who are quite funny. May be the funny streak also arises from my background and my upbringing in places in Chandni Chowk."
Interestingly, it wasn't actually 'Hera Pheri' but the much-forgotten 'Mr and Mrs Khiladi' in 1997, which bought his comic skills to the fore. "But since two David Dhawan movies released on the same day, our film got buried."
Conclusively, we ask him since 'Sholay' has been a movie that emerged as a benchmark for friendship sagas on celluloid, which role would he play if offered a modern-day version of the epic film. "Basanti's," pat comes his response. "With the character of course turning male," he quickly adds.