Kamal Ghorui
Rajpal Yadav has been in the news after he was sent to Tihar jail in Rs 9 crore debt case. The actor is now out on bail while the matter is still in court. The actor will be seen next in ‘Bhooth Bangla’ alongside Akshay Kumar. Rajpal has even been promoting the film with Akshay and director Priyadarshan. In a recent interview, Akshay has reacted to Rajpal’s case while recalling an advice given to him by the late Asrani. For those not in the know, Asrani passed away in October last year and his last two films were with Akshay and Priyadarshan. The late actor will also be seen in ‘Bhooth Bangla’. Akshay recalled that Asrani had once advised him to not produce films. The ‘Khiladi’ actor said in an interview with Screen, “I have done a lot of films with him. In his last days, he shared a couple of things from his life with me. He spoke about the time he faced the biggest stress of his life, he had told me, never produce a film. He said, ‘Akshay, don’t ever produce a film, it was the biggest mistake of my life when I put in my own money. When you produce a film with someone else’s money, it’s fine, the risk and profit is their’s, when you think of earning more for yourself by putting in your money, it never sits well.’ He had produced a film and faced huge losses. It was a good film, but it didn’t work. He said he lost his life savings because of that. So he told me never to produce by putting in your own money.”Further connecting Asrani’s advice to Rajpal Yadav’s case, Akshay said, “It comes to the same thing that Asrani sahab said, never produce a film. I told him, ‘don’t produce films’. We are actors and producers know how to produce a film, so you should not try to be a producer when you don’t know the trick. If you are an actor, you should stay an actor. Do not think of making money hurriedly through shortcuts. I hope Rajpal comes out of this situation completely. What an actor he is! When people give 100 percent, he delivers 120-140 percent. It is so much fun working with him. Our banter comes so naturally that sometimes the line is not even written in the script, and when we make it and show it to him (Priyadarshan), he likes it.”Director Priyadarshan who was also a part of this interview added, “I have done 98 films, never produced a film. Most of the successful directors immediately produce their own film. I do a lot of physical comedy with Rajpal. In Bhoot Bangla, Akshay and Rajpal are like Tom and Jerry.”
