Consistent, dependable and extremely sincere, he is all that and so much more. He has combated almost every career obstacle and always emerged victorious. He is a critic favorite and a box office man… This Sunday, on Koffee with Karan meet the mega star Anil Kapoor. Karan's second guest is one of the finest actors of the generation. His real and restrained performances have made him not only an audience favorite but also a fraternity favorite. He stands out in a crowd... He stands out in an ensemble and he stands out because of his sheer talent, he is none other than Akshaye Khanna.
Karan: I want to tell everybody as I was saying before we started rolling that you actually are my first film industry friend. I used to go with my father to all those film parties, I was all of 16-17 and weighed around 150 kilos and the only person who was nice to me at those parties was you! So thank you for being nice to me twenty years ago.
Anil: Well, Karan, I had a great relationship with your dad and I always wanted to do a film with him.
Karan: And he did offer you one really obscure film. (laughs)
Anil: Prakashji had offered me that film. But he was a great guy and I have some great memories of him. I don't want to get too sentimental, but whenever I see you, I meet you, I remember your dad. He loved me, I think!
Karan: Yeah! He was very fond of you! He was exceptionally fond of you and so am I. But that doesn't mean I'm going to be nice to you on the show. First let me just tell you, it's been a fantastic innings... you've been working in the movies for how many years now...
Anil: 1978-79, so almost 30 years.
Karan: 30 years... so you've been through ups and downs and hits and flops and always maintained your stature...always maintained your dignity and always maintained your stardom. It must have been a tough ride. How does it feel today?
Anil: I feel honestly... God has been very kind to me and the film industry has been wonderful, all my directors and co-stars have been wonderful. I have some great friends and my family has been wonderful. I don't know what I would have done if I was not in this film industry. I've had a great time… every moment I have spent over here has been wonderful.
Karan: So how old are you Anil?
Anil: I'm 30 years old. I was born in '78 when I first faced the camera.
Karan: Fine! Great! And I'm the Queen of England (Laughs), but we just have to move on. So we'll just stick to the fact that your 30. Today how does it feel? You have done such tremendous innings, you've done such great work, you're a lead actor and your daughter is making a debut with Sanjay Bhansali in Sanwariya. Does that scare you at all? The thought of it?
Anil: Not at all. Because I have two more children, so I'm hoping to be a leading man till they also come into entertainment, because they also have decided to come into entertainment. I don't know which line they are going to choose. Sonam of course is Sanjay Leela Bhansali's responsibility, so that's taken care of. The focus is Harsh and Riya. Till they come and make a mark in the entertainment world, I have to be a leading man.
Karan: Are you at all in anyway sometimes an embarrassment to your children because sometimes... and I mean that in the most positive way that sometimes if you see your dad up there you know dancing ...
Anil: They are constantly embarrassed. They're embarrassed about me, about my films, they are embarrassed about everything I do.
Karan: When you wear leather pants and a snazzy red jacket and you spike your hair, do they tell you... dad what the hell are you doing? Because I was just thinking if I saw my dad do stuff like that, I would just collapse. Is it funny for them to watch you?
Anil: See, earlier I would bum one or two cigarettes... I've never been a smoker.. But I've decided that I will not smoke at all till Sanwariya releases. I haven't touched a cigarette in quite some time. For my son... he drinks a lot of soft drinks, so now the bet is, he says you can never get abs, he's got great abs... my son… so I am working towards that... if I get abs he is going to stop aerated drinks. So I am getting abs now for my son. So now everything revolves around my family. I do everything for my children. I do it for Sonam, or harsh and for Riya.
Karan: Sounds like a perfect family - perfect husband, perfect father and very, very few stories about your philandering... actually none at all.
Anil: I'm a good guy!!! I've decided to be completely honest on the show, so I'm being totally honest.
Karan: And you're saying you've been completely faithful?
Anil: Faithful? I wouldn't say that.
Karan: Meaning? What do you mean?
Anil: You got me ya!
Karan: Is this confession time?
Anil: Yeah! Absolutely!
Karan: Alright, we have many more confessions but first we are going to call someone who's very dear to you and has been a friend of yours and I'm really excited to have him on my show...
Karan: Is this a real fact that both of you'll are really close friends which doesn't really happen... two actors being real friends… That doesn't really happen in the industry though people pretend, but this is a genuine friendship… So how did that happen? How did it all start?
Akshaye: From my side it was out of respect really.
Karan: You're just making him older now.
Akshaye: No, no... It's out of sheer respect. I think friendship at any level has to start from a certain amount of respect. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him and I think 'Gandhi, My Father' has given us a chance to work in such close proximity so we spend a lot of time with each other, have a lot of conversation. When you spend so much time, it gives you an opportunity to strike a friendship, strike a connection.
Anil: At least for me, it started from Taal.
Karan: You both did Taal and then Salaam-e-ishq also.
Anil: Yeah, that was more recent. But basically for me it started from Taal. I remember on the first day of shooting… I was waiting on the sets of Taal and looking at the watch and I was like, Subhaashji aapka hero Akshaye to aaya hi nahi abhi tak, and he said, woh aayega.. who aayega! And he came after 12 o'clock and he came very casually on the set and he said, 'Subhaashji, sorry, I overslept'. (Laughs)
Karan: Well that's quite honest, instead of saying I was really sick last night and I was throwing up.
Anil: So I was completely taken aback by his honesty and he was not trying to…like hum log to kabhi kabhi jhoot bol dete the, but he was one of those honest actors I had ever met. That's what I like, what he feels... he says it. No double faced kind of personality. I'm sometimes very scared what he's going to talk. You think… pata nahi kya bol dega...
Karan: Is he scary like that? Is he going to attack me if I ask him something?
Akshaye: Especially after one or two vodka's. (Laughs)
Karan: Listen this is a family show ya... What are you doing to my show?
Karan: I was talking to Anil about his career graph. Yours has been through its own upswings and downswings. It's been a journey for you as well. You came in as one of the most hyped new comers and you saw some great times and you saw some bad times and then Dil Chahta Hain onwards there was this emergence of Akshaye Khanna, the actor. So how's it been… the entire journey?
Akshaye: I was listening to what Anil was saying also of how literally empty an actor would feel without the film industry... without the journey and this continuance of the journey you know... its such a great place to be. Up, down... whatever stage your at, its just such a great place to be... so much fun and you know... we wouldn't do anything else.
Karan: Another thing we were discussing about you being a good boy Anil, is that we have never really heard or you just cover it all up … but Akshaye you know better maybe… you think he's been up to any tricks?
Akshaye: No, no! But in fact you know that day we were just sitting in Anil's office and just chatting and he was saying… Akshaye you know its been 30 years or 25 years… however long he's been an actor .. I've had no controversies. .. You know nothing to keep me in the news. .. You know makeup-breakup or a fight with someone or slapped someone … I've had nothing.
Karan: I have never read about him… any affairs and liaisons or Anil acting fresh with someone. It's really amazing. You really do a great cover up job or you are just basically great!
Anil: Great cover up job!
Karan: I never believe in the too-good-to-be-true types you know… these very very happily married situations always scare me. I always wonder what's happening behind the scenes.
Akshaye: But Anil's been remarkably lucky with his marriage.
Karan: He has a terrific wife… I absolutely love her
Akshaye: Absolutely superb person. So first marriage he got very lucky and now he's married to Firoz where he's as lucky.
Karan: Firoz for those concerned is the director of Gandhi, My Father and is now always with Anil.
Akshaye: They're like married. So in his second marriage he got lucky again! He's got so lucky with marriage that every couple of months he asks… kab shaadi kar raha hain tu? Shaadi kar shaadi kar shaadi kar…kar le.
Karan: Do you take all his advice seriously?
Akshaye: I keep telling him, 'Arre you've been so lucky with marriage…I might not be… Im not ready for marriage yet. Hold On!!!'
Karan: But there have been absolutely no link-up's with you Akshaye, as well!
Akshaye: There have been here and there!
Karan: There has been Tara.. We read about her but beyond that…
Akshaye: But that's a genuine relationship, but link-up's happen now and then.
Karan: You work with the most beautiful women, the most sexy women. But there still haven't been any stories?
Akshaye: There have been a few stories, but few and far between.
Karan: Good! I'm glad to hear that! That is some kind of a declaration. Is it sometimes tough when you work with the most beautiful women and you interact with them romantically? Does it get difficult to avoid a scenario which might involve you? And they're dating someone else and there is a certain kind of chemistry? Does it ever happen?
Anil: It is very difficult!
Akshaye: It is difficult na?
Karan: Like for you… your married… and your supposedly turned on!
Anil: Not turned on… that's not a very nice way of putting it, but definitely your attracted…and you spend a lot of time with them… more than you do with your family and you do get attached!
Karan: It happens! Thand lag jaati hain outdoors mein! (Laughs)
Anil: Bombay mein bhi lagti hain. Aisi koi baat nahi hain!
Karan: Gandhi- My father, when such a film comes your way, and you don't have a place for yourself in it, and you are producing it, I think that's remarkable? How did it all happen Anil?
Anil: Well, Gandhi - My father, the script of the film when I heard the first time… when Feroze narrated it to me, you know I have been listening to scripts for so many years, I have worked with so many Directors but, I was completely bowled, completely moved by its content, by its story, dialogues, the way Feroze was narrating it, I knew it was a fabulous script, it's a great story, and I am sure he was going to make a fabulous film, you know its an instinct, you being the son of a Producer, has been making films for the last 50 years, my brother he has made a lot of great films, I have learnt a lot from my father, my brother and the Kapoor family that includes Raj saab, worked with Yashji, Subhashji, all these stalwarts of the film industry, so you get a certain kind of instinct, so when I heard the script, I felt ok, I may be wrong, so, let me ask Sunita and Sonam also, and they had the same reaction and being a Producer is completely taboo in my house, my wife just doesn't want that I produce a film, because you know to be an actor and a star you have to be very fortunate…
Karan: And so was Akshaye your first choice for the film?
Anil: Well… when I heard the script, he wasn't the first choice … there were other actors who were considered…
Karan: You didn't know that Akshaye?
Akshaye: I did
Anil: But, I always wanted Akshaye to be in the film
Karan: What was your reaction Akshaye, when you heard the script?
Akshaye: You know, we were at the airport together… and you know Anil, full of life and energy and high on life and he was like, "Akshaye, I have got something"
Karan: laughs… with that energy
Akshaye: Ya… literally ha… he was so charged… with the script and what he had got… and when he gets excited he likes to abuse a lot… and I was like what do you have ya… he said, "I am coming to you… I am still not ready… I am coming to you"… and then 3 months after that …
Karan: After this burst?
Akshaye: Ya… 4-5 months I think later… he calls and he says, " I am sending Feroze to your house"… I met Feroze.
Anil: That 3-4 months I was convincing Feroze for Akshaye… laughs.
Karan: That's why it took so long… laughs.
Akshaye: Even Feroze says, Akshaye is Anil's contribution … so, 4 months later, Feroze comes to my house, gives me the script, gives me a little a brief and says, we want you to play Gandhi… So, I got a jhatka yaar, I was like Anil Kapoor was so excited, for offering me to play Gandhi, so, I said ok, Feroze I will read the script… and I straight ran to the bathroom and looked at the mirror… looked right… looked left… what has Anil seen… from which angle do I look like Gandhi… I got so scared, but, I thought if Anil is doing something for the first time… it must be something really good…
Karan: But, why wasn't Feroze specific that it is Harilal Gandhi and not Gandhi?
Akshaye: No… no … he was playing a joke on me.
Karan: Oh… I missed that completely… I thought he misunderstood.
Akshaye: He was calling me… I am was not taking his calls…
Karan: Oh… you started avoiding Anil.
Akshaye: I was so petrified.
Karan: Were you insulted?
Akshaye: No, not insulted… I was just so shocked… Then he messaged me, I want you to play Gandhi's son and not Gandhi… so then I read the script… I had never come across writing of this caliber…
Karan: At all, before that…
Akshaye: No… not of this level… Anil, always says… I have worked with so many people… I have never met a Director with this kind of depth.
Karan: With this kind of intensity.
Karan: What was your reaction, when you saw the film for the first time?
Akshaye: I saw it, with my family… emotions… it really stirs you … it shakes you up… makes you cry… I sometimes cry just watching the promos…
Karan: It has that kind of impact… what was your father's reaction… when he saw the film…
Akshaye: He hugged me and he hugged Anil… Anil said, he wouldn't let me go, he was hugging him for so long… he was so happy… so happy…
Karan: Fantastic… and I wish you all the best.
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