Akshay Kumar: Insulting to compare 'Airlift' with 'Argo'

January 19, 2016

Mumbai, Jan 19: Akshay Kumar's upcoming 'Airlift' shares the same genre as 'Argo' but the superstar says it is an insult to his film when people compare it to the Oscar-winning Hollywood movie as the story is inspired by a real incident.

airliftThe 48-year-old actor says while the Ben Affleck-starrer chronicled the evacuation of six Americans at the time of Iran hostage crisis, 'Airlift' is the story of 1,70,000 Indians who were rescued from Kuwait during the Iraq-Kuwait war. "Saying that our film is copied from 'Argo' is an insult. How can it be a copy when it is a true story? It is not a copy. It is something which you should be proud of. It is the story of the biggest ever human evacuation in the history of mankind," Akshay told reporters here.

Director Raja Krishna Menon says other than the common theme of evacuation, there is no similarity between his film and the 2012 Hollywood movie. "The only faint link is that some people were saved in a covert operation. Everything else is different. It is only a similar genre. Our film is about the single greatest achievement of independent India. 'Argo' is not in that space," Menon said.

The actor says he was not aware of the 1990 incident and only came to know about it when the director gave him the script of 'Airlift'. "At that time there was only one article about the evacuation. The government did it silently. It is not a matter of joke. When I met those people, they started crying at the mention of it. I was deeply inspired by the story. It shows the greatness of our country."

In the film, Akshay plays a businessman Ranjit Katyal, who negotiates with the government to evacuate 1,70,000 Indians stranded in Kuwait and fly them to India. 'Airlift' also stars Nimrat Kaur and Purab Kohli. In recent times, Akshay has successfully juggled between commercial potboilers like 'Singh is Bliing' and thrillers with patriotic themes like 'Baby' and 'Holiday'. The actor says he loves to keep challenging himself with different roles.

"I keep on challenging myself all the time. I want to be in my comfort zone and then try some roles which are challenging for me. 'Singh is Bliing' and 'Housefull 3' are in my comfort zone but this one is not, 'Baby' was not.

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News Network
June 29,2020

New Delhi, Jun 29: Actor Bhumi Pednekar on Monday pledged to feed over 550 impoverished families as a mark of tribute to late Bollywood actor and her 'Sonchiriya' co-star Sushant Singh Rajput.

Pednekar made the announcement through an Instagram post where she shared a picture of the departed actor and penned down a note along with it.

"I pledge to feed 550 impoverished families through the Ek Saath Foundation in the memory of my dear friend. Let us show compassion and love towards everyone that is in need, now more than ever," Pednekar wrote.

The two actors shared screen space in the Abhishek Chaubey directorial which continues to be a critically acclaimed film.

Rajput was found dead at his Mumbai's Bandra residence earlier this month. The detailed post-mortem report has also confirmed that he died by "asphyxia due to hanging."

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News Network
January 7,2020

Mumbai, Jan 7: Actor Anil Kapoor, who next will be seen onscreen in Malang, revealed that he always tells superstar Aamir Khan not to stop working with filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani.

Kapoor was interacting with the media at the trailer launch of Malang along with his co-actors Adtiya Roy Kapur, Disha Patani, Elli AvRam, film's director Mohit Suri and producers Luv Ranjan, Bhushan Kumar, Ankur Garg and Jay Shewakraman on Monday in Mumbai.

Anil Kapoor has worked with many directors and producers in his 40-year acting career.

Talking about camp culture in the Hindi film industry and praising makers of Malang, Kapoor said, "I feel we need producers like Ankur (Garg) and Luv (Ranjan). I have told Mohit (Suri) to continue doing films with them. I always tell Aamir Khan by calling him on the phone to say that you should not leave Raju Hirani (Rajkumar Hirani). Whenever I see films of both of them, I tell Aamir not to leave him."

He continued, "I feel whenever you make a good team then you should hold on to it. Team is very important and there are certain stars that come together to make something interesting and exciting."

Kapoor gave an example of Hollywood actors and filmmakers while backing his viewpoint.

"If you see Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio they do so many films together. They can work with others, too, but they keep working with each other. There is some magic, obviously. You have to go with the casting but somewhere I feel teams should stand by each other," the actor added.

Malang stars Aditya Roy Kapur, Disha Patani, Anil Kapoor and Kunal Khemu in lead roles. It is scheduled to release on February 7.

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News Network
June 16,2020

Mumbai, Jun 16: The International Space University (ISU) in France has paid homage to Sushant Singh Rajput in a statement, saying the news of the actor's death was "deeply saddening".

Rajput was found dead in his Bandra apartment on Sunday.

According to an official, Mumbai Police found out during the probe that the 34-year-old actor was under medication for depression.

The official Twitter handle of ISU on Monday tweeted how Rajput was supposed to visit the campus last year but was unable to due to scheduling conflict.

"We are deeply saddened by the dramatic news on the death of well known Indian actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Mr Singh Rajput was a believer and strong supporter of STEM education and was following ISU on social media.

"He had even accepted an invitation to visit ISU's Central Campus in the summer of 2019 but other agenda priorities prevented him from travelling to Strasbourg," the statement by the university read.

ISU paid condolences to Rajput's family and friends, saying the actor's memory will "remain among his thousands of followers across India and all over the world".

Rajput had enrolled at Delhi Technical University (DTU) in 2003, which was then known as Delhi College of Engineering, but left the course to pursue his showbiz dreams.

Even after leaving the four-year degree course, he remained fascinated with science and had a deep interest in astronomy.

As part of his research for the film "Chanda Mama Door Ke", he also visited the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 2017.

Rajput had stayed in NASA to train for his role as an astronaut for the film, which was eventually shelved.

The actor also owned Meade 14" LX600 telescope.

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