Akshay Kumar's father Hari Om Bhatia was a soldier in the Indian, based in Amritsar, till he joined UNICEF as an accountant in Delhi, where Akshay was born. Akshay's upcoming film Holiday — A Soldier Is Never Off Duty, directed by AR Murugadoss, is based on the life of an Indian soldier, played by Akshay, who goes on a holiday and finds something wrong, which he fights for to correct, thus giving the message that an army officer in reality is never off duty. Akshay feels strongly for the army and its men and so he decided to visit two army camps, one in Jodhpur and the other, naturally Amritsar, the camp where his father worked for the army. Bombay Times was present exclusively with Akshay during this journey and we bring you highlights of his visit to Jodhpur, where he went first. We bring you excerpts from a conversation with him during the journey, where he talks about his army way of living, his my way of living, his father-in-law who he called `Buddy' and his mother-in-law, who he considers the greatest woman he has ever met.

Do you have memories of your dad being in the army at all?
I don't have much memories of my dad being in the army, as he had given up the army by the time I was born, but I have always been brought up in an army way. He would wake me up at 5 am and take me for jogging with him. I was always early to bed and early to rise.

Talk about your relationship with your father-in-law Rajesh Khanna?
I knew him even before I met Tina. He was a producer and in my struggling days, I had visited his office 5-6 times to look for work. On one of my visits, he told me that he was making a film with Chunky Panday, post which I should come to him. We would call each other Buddies and he would often say, `Buddy what are you doing?' He was a chilled out mind. I still remember the last holiday when we went with the family to Goa and can never forget that holiday. Even though he was very sick we took him along and even in that state, he would enjoy his alcohol and why not? What I liked most about him was that he was very lion-hearted and he was a yaron ka yaar. Jo bol diya soh kar diya. He liked the fact that I was taking good care of his daughter and he loved my son Aarav a lot.

Every wife likes to flaunt and make comparisons between her father and her husband. Does Tina also do that to you?
For her, her parents are the biggest. I am nothing in front of them. And that is true, I am nothing in front of them. Her favourite line is, `My parents have won national awards. What have you got?'

Between your in-laws, is it true that you are closer to your mother-in-law Dimple Kapadia?
Yes, I am closer to her and I truly believe that she is a great woman and a great human being. The way she has taken care of her friends, Rajesh Khannaji and her sis ter, going to hospital every day for nine months is com mendable. I still remember once I had gone to Lilavati hospital to see her sister. I had gone early morning as I had to go for shooting. I reached at 6.45 am and found her sleeping downstairs outside, as there was no space in her sister's room for her to sleep. I woke her up and said, `Why are you sleeping here?' She got a bit embarrassed. But she took continuous care of her sister till she died and stayed in the hospital for full nine months. I don't feel anyone can do that today .


How do you de-stress emotionally?
I am not a very talkative person, so don't talk much. I can offload 30-40% to my wife. That's it. Otherwise, I deal with my stress myself.