I like to take up realistic themes: Akki

National Award-winning actor Akshay Kumar and ‘Dum Laga Ke Haisha’ fame Bhumi Pednekar, who will be seen together in the upcoming flick ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ were in the city to promote the message-centric entertainer.

Interestingly, Akshay was not the first choice for the film which carries a social message. He states that the script was doing rounds for years but no one took it up. “I found the script very interesting, which is out-of-the-box and a thing which has to be told to people. About 54 per cent of India does not have toilets. And that is alarming! It was so different including the title to the story, so I decided to do it, and I did it.”

Akshay, who mostly did action films in the 90’s , is now focussing on doing films, which are made around topical themes. “I like such scripts and then there is also a conscious decision to do something like this.

It cannot just happen because there is a mindset against such cinema, which I was very aware of issues and I wanted to talk about it. I make the subject into a commercial film, and give the message to people in a very different way, in a romantic way and in a comedy way,” he adds.

Meanwhile, his co-star Bhumi who garnered accolades for her role in ‘Dum Laga Ke Haisha’ informs that it is not an easy film for a girl. “It was a difficult role to do and especially for a person like me who was unaware of the gravity of the situation of not having a toilet, especially for women.

When I associated myself with the film, I realised how bad the situation is. These are real statistics we are talking about and these are real-life incidences. We are hoping that this film will bring a change in the society,” she points out.

Talking about Bhumi’s acting skills, Akki says “She is a very strong actress. She has taken a role, which is so difficult plus it needs a daring attitude to do a role like this.

There is this one scene, where she had to pretend that she is squatting pulling her saree up, in front of camera, crew and all and these kinds of things are not easy to do. Your mindset has to be in a different place to do something like that. She is a very good actress and we all saw what she did in her first film,”

Speaking about the preparation that goes into every role Akshay shares, “I just do one homework and that is - when my director, who has done all the homework comes and tells me everything, I just sit down with the team and talk, read the script and dialogues and that is it. I would lie if I say that I shut myself in a room for three months to do the preparation.

Or that I went to Uttar Pradesh if I am playing a character from UP and roamed around putting a moustache. I know many actors say that but to be honest they all lie (laughs).” The film arrives in theatres on August 11.