"I'm A Real Desi Boy"

He is a hardcore commercial actor and, even as a producer too, he has produced typical Bollywood potboilers, but Akshay Kumar says that given a chance he would love to experiment. He also reveals that he will always be a 'desi' boy, be it preferring Hindi to English or eating parathas at home.

"I want to produce commercial films. But if I get a good script, I would love to make a National Award-winning movie," Akshay, 44, said in an interview.

Akshay's next release, 'Desi Boyz' (which releases November 25), sees him teaming up with John Abraham, Deepika Padukone and Chitrangada Singh. And Akki, a Punjabi who has spent many years in Delhi, says he has always been a 'desi' at heart and his recent decision of communicating in Hindi shouldn't be taken as a marketing gimmick.

"I have always tried to speak in Hindi. It is because in real life I am a real 'desi' boy. All my life I have believed that the day should start with touching the feet of my parents, that home cooked food is always better than outside food. I have always preferred ghar ka parantha to anything from outside," he said.

"Even if we go out for a movie, I prefer to watch Hindi films over English. So it was there in me, always. I am very grounded that way," he added.

Akshay and John's cool chemistry was the highlight of 'Garam Masala', and the former says that his friend and co-star has improved a lot since then.

"We are coming back together on the big screen after six long years. We were not offered any movies together during that period. While shooting for this film, we had much more fun than we had in 'Garam Masala'. So, we were wondering why no one ever thought of casting us together all these years," said Akshay.

"We have become really good friends now. And, trust me, John has improved a lot since then, especially his comic timing. I'd say way that he has improved his comic timing, just like he's improved his muscles.

From being an action hero to doing comedies, Akshay has tried different things and in his upcoming film 'Desi Boyz' he will be seen baring a lot of his body and even pole dancing. And what he liked about his character, Jerry Patel, is that it was a different role.

"I had a lot of fun while doing this movie. First of all, I haven't played this kind of character ever. When the role was narrated to me, I knew this was something I wanted to do. And, secondly, its director Rohit Dhawan told me that the film is based on a real-life incident of two people who had to take extreme steps to survive during the recession," he said.

The action-comedy deals with how the lives of two friends turn upside down when the recession hits Britain and they are left with no choice but to bare all and pole dance for a living. And then the story has its twists and turns.

Akshay made his mark with hits like 'Khiladi', 'Ajnabee', 'Hera Pheri' and 'Namastey London' and, in the future, has projects like 'Joker', 'Rowdy Rathore' and 'Housefull 2' next year.

He turned producer in 2010 with 'Tees Mar Khan' and later produced 'Patiala House' and 'Thank You' as well. Even though these films flopped at the box-office, Akshay is undeterred.

"I will always do a film I believe in, I can connect to and my fans can relate to it as well. So even if 'Patiala House' didn't do well commercially, it was critically acclaimed. I was close to the film because it dealt with the emotional bond between a father and a son," he said.

IANS