Why Akshay like Deepika?

It looks like Delhi and Chandni Chowk have become a favourite haunting-ground for self-searching explorers of the film industry.

Is Akshay Kumar finally getting a dream to come true? For long he has felt that his own success- story has the potential to be made into a movie.

And now it looks like he's getting his way. Nikhil Advani's new action-adventure-comedy weirdly entitled Chandni Chowk To China (yup, that's the title which has finally been chosen) has distinct shades of autobiography in its plotting.

The film's nimble-footed hero is a cook who goes to China and encounters further adventures. By now it's part of Akshay Kumar's folkore that he served as a cook in Bangkok and earned his way back to Mumbai to make cinematic history.

The rasoi-angle isn't the only similarity between the guy from Delhi (Akshay still has his father's family in the Capital) and the hero from Chandni Chowk. Both are martial-arts practitioners.

Also if you look at the film's leading lady Deepika Padukone she's tall, slim and regal looking…like Akshay's wife Twinkle. A coincidence? Akshay has always liked women who are tall and in-charge.

One reason why China was chosen for Nikhil's film is to tap Akshay's long-cherished yearning for a full-on martial arts film.

Not having done a full action film for over seven years Akshay has undergone training on a form of martial arts known as Wushu for Nikhil's film.

"It's a very intricate art practiced on screen by Jet Li and Jackie Chan. Everyone knows Akshay is a big Jackie Chan fan. This is his chance to get even.

Akshay plays a cook who goes to China. But I can't say if Chandni Chowk To China is autobiographical. My writer Sridhar Raghavan (Johnny Gaddar director Sriram's brother) wrote an original screenplay.

If he was inspired by Akshay's life he'll know better," laughs Nikhil on his return from China where he was recently finalizing the locations.

Chandni Chown To China starts shooting on 22 February in various parts of China including Shanghai. Nikhil wraps up by May.

About the corny title, the director laughs, "We earlier called our film Made In China. But we all felt Chandni Chowk To China suits the mood better. We've a song with that title in the film. So why not?"

By Subhash K Jha

- santabanta