Actor Akshay Kumar, who will be seen in the role of a naval officer in his upcoming film “Rustom”, says he envies people who wear uniforms and that wearing a uniform brought about a change in his style of walking.
“When I’m getting ready, I wear my navy trousers and a banyan inside, till that time I am okay, normal. When the uniforms used to come, the badges, the cap, my walk completely changed; I started gliding. There is something about uniforms that it gives you a certain kind of responsibility; it just tells you, ‘you are the man, you take the charge, you do everything’.
“When you see the movie, you will see that my walk has changed while I’m entering the courtroom or anything. So I envy these people who wear uniform. That’s why I also did the contest that whenever you see a guy in a uniform, have a selfie,” Akshay said.
Akshay has previously donned the uniform as an army officer in “Holiday”, anti-terrorism secret agent in “Baby”, an Indian Air Force officer in “Andaaz” and as a police officer in films such as “Aan: Men at Work”, “Khakee”, “Mohra”, “Main Khiladi Tu Anari”, amd “Khiladi 786” among others. He will also be seen in a lawyer’s uniform in his next film “Jolly LLB 2”.
About his preparation for a naval officer, he said: “I didn’t specially sit down and took books to learn about the navy rules and regulations. I didn’t interact with any naval men, only there was one naval officer who was guiding me throughout about how the salute is, how the badges are to be worn, how the uniforms should be and how the walk should be.”
Akshay plays a Parsi in the film. About how he prepared for the Parsi character, he said: “I have a Parsi secretary-manager, she is the reference point and my best friends in my school time, there was a guy whose name was Rustom, we used to call him Dodo. I know Parsis very well. I can speak a little bit of the language. The only thing I did was that I copied my manager’s father’s moustache.”
“Rustom” also stars Ileana D’Cruz and Esha Gupta.