Akshay Kumar to WION: If we make sports compulsory, imagine the number of champions India will produce
WION Exclusive: Akshay Kumar speaks on his new film 'Gold'
In an exclusive chat, Akshay Kumar spoke about his new film Gold, choice of films, the importance of sports and more.
As India gears to celebrate its Independence Day on August 15, 2018, Akshay Kumar has something special lined up for his fans and supporters. Releasing on I-Day, Akshay Kumar is currently in preps for his next film titled ‘Gold’ that follows the story of an Indian hockey star Tapan Das who wants his country to win a gold medal under the tricolour. High on emotions and moments of nationalistic pride, the film promises to make you relive the golden era of Indian hockey.
In an exclusive chat with WION, Akshay Kumar opened up on his gift to fellow countrymen on the I-Day, his choice of films, the importance of sports and more.
With a story that is sure to connect with the masses owing to its play on nostalgia and old-world charm, Akshay feels that the script of ‘Gold’ came as a gift to him from the director. He says, “I feel lucky to have been given a script like this. Interestingly, no one even knew about this event. In 1947 we got our Independence, and in 1948 we defeated England.” This is what he looks like in the film.
He adds, “I got a chance to play a character who united the entire team, took them to Olympics and won gold. This was amazing for a one-year-old independent country.”
Of late, Akshay has been seen in roles that carry a powerful standalone social message or have some historical connect. His recent spate of films like ‘PadMan’, ‘Toilet Ek Prem Katha’ has been all about social taboos and misconceptions in the society that we need to get rid of while films like ‘Rustom’, ‘Airlift’ were based on a real-life incident in India’s history.
Ask him whether he has taken the sole responsibility of doing films with a message of nationalism, Akshay says, “I have simply lucky to have been given these opportunities. I don’t know if others are given this opportunity, whether they choose to ignore it as its risky or otherwise, but I can speak for myself and I must say that I eagerly wait for these opportunities.”
As his latest offering is primarily a sports drama and he is personally a fitness freak, Akshay believes that we as a country can do so well if we concentrate on sports and make our children more enthusiastic about it. He says, “India’s health care is very bad. It’s because we don’t push our children to pick an outdoor sport as a priority like in other world countries. Take the case of Croatia, it’s a very small country but it made it to the football world cup finals.”
He adds, “Kids are made to choose an outdoor sport in other world countries, imagine what would happen if we make our kids in India do that. Imagine the numbers of champions we will have here.”
Since Akshay’s film ‘Gold’ focuses on that match that changed India’s holding in world hockey ranking, the story promises to be an eye-opener for many who had no idea of this historical and monumental event in its own right. Vice-captain of the 1948 hockey team, Balbir Singh, who is also incidentally the last surviving member of the team was also asked how it feels to see a film being made on the match that they lived.
Balbir Singh says, “Winning that match doubled our pleasure -- first to get Independence and seeing our flag everywhere, second to win a gold medal under the flag. It was Independent India’s first Olympic gold. We had played on earlier occasions too but then it was not Team India as Pakistan was also a part of India then. Also, we didn’t get to play against England as they didn’t participate."
Remembering the moment they won the match, Balbir says, "I remember looking at the unfurling of the flag. People tell me I scored a lot of goals, but I say that it’s the team that scored."
‘Gold’ releases on August 15 clashing with John Abraham’s ‘Satyameva Jayate’.