By Hindustan Times
Just two-and-a-half months into the New Year, actor Akshay Kumar’s plate is brimming with fresh projects. Come May-June, and he will turn into a gangster for the Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai sequel. He also has films like Oh My God!, Khiladi 786, Rowdy Rathore and A Wednesday director
Neeraj Pandey’s next, lined up. In the midst of all these, he has just taken up the Hindi remake of Mammootty’s Pokkiri Brothers, and a film by former Balaji associate Ashwin Varde.
And if all this wasn’t enough, the action hero has been signed on to fill south star Vijay’s shoes in the Hindi remake of Thupaki, directed by A R Murugadoss. The Tamil movie, revolving around a man’s journey from a small town to Mumbai, where he becomes a don, is still under production. But once the shooting wraps up, it will be remade in Hindi with Akshay in the lead and Murugadoss as the director again.
This is the filmmaker’s second Bollywood movie to be remade from his own Tamil repertoire. Back in 2007-08, he worked with perfectionist actor-producer Aamir Khan on the Hindi remake of his Tamil hit, Ghajini. Vijay and Murugadoss were recently in the city to film a host of crucial scenes. Akshay is understandably happy to associate with another maverick filmmaker.
“Murugadoss is a genius. He did a fabulous job with Ghajini and I’m extremely happy that we’ve managed to sneak in time to work together,” he says, adding, “I’m sure you’re wondering with so many films, and other assignments, how I am going to manage this project. Let me tell you that if I can’t deliver, I won’t commit. And instead of taking it negatively, people should take the gesture positively, because the more the stars work, the more employment is generated for spot boys and other workers on the sets who run their kitchens on daily wages even today.”
