DYK Akshay Kumar's Second Career Choice Was To Be An Army Man

As armyman Virat Bakshi, Akshay Kumar is in top form in AR Murugadoss’ Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty which turned 10 on June 6. Akshay plays a soldier who is home for a vacation. He uses the time to fall in love with an arranged match and also save Mumbai from a sleeper-cell terrorist attack which threatens to plunder the city. He is a busy man. So is director A R Murugadoss. They both are on the same mission. While Akshay saves the city, his director rescues the masala fare from the blemishes of blandness that it has acquired lately.

In an interview conducted by this writer immediately after the release, Akshay had said, “In Holiday, I play a deadly fantasy version of a life that I would have had if I had never been an actor. Playing this role was so unbelievably intriguing, it was like I got to play my inner yin and yang. One minute I am a truly patriotic man, who fights for his country as well as his family, respecting all who walk in my path, then Boom!... Even the meanest people in the world don’t know what’s hit them when I get my hands on them!!”

In the film, Akshay’s character feels a counter-terrorist must think like a terrorist. “Yes, because, in order to create good, I have to become evil. It was like playing the best reality video game ever, I’m the hero that gets to hunt down, crack codes, kill and torture Mumbai’s enemies while falling in love, protecting families of fellow comrades, and saving my city from utter destruction. I couldn’t dream of a meatier role. I literally had the experience of a lifetime. This is one character I’m sad to say goodbye to.”

Akshay confessed his second career choice was always the army “Being Virat Bakshi in Holiday, was something I’ve waited a really long time to experience. As a bonus I got the genius director A.R.Murugadoss, the extremely intelligent script, the precious opportunity to play an army officer, the gritty subject, the demanding substance of my character from start to finish, showing the nation what people are prepared to go through in order to keep us safe, and then I had the film’s inviolable message to put across. No matter what happens, we will not be threatened by anyone, because we are India, and we are united, no one shall cause bloodshed in our country, and get away with it, not while we still have our Indian Army to protect us!! I just kept thinking how lucky I was to be able to portray this terrific character. When I took my family to see it, they couldn’t believe it was me, they saw a side to me they didn’t know existed. I’ve played so many heroes’ roles over the years. But nothing compares to this. I thoroughly enjoyed the attention to detail, the plot, the circumstances, the twist and the impulse to choose a path that could kill thousands of innocent lives. Do you even know what it’s like for an adrenaline junkie actor like myself to get my hands on something so meaty and so vivid? I will thank Murugadoss and his silent but violent brain for creating something so brilliant to play, for the rest of my career. And of course producer Vipul Shah.”