Chaya Unnikrishnan (DNA; August 2, 2017)

Akshay Oberoi is teaming up with Saif Ali Khan in his next, Kaalakaandi. Directed by Delhi Belly writer Akshat Verma, the film has Saif and Akshay playing brothers. “It’s a one night story wherein Saif is going through his problems and I am going through mine. As the sun rises, the two of us solve or don’t resolve our problems. There’s also a love story going on, there are gangsters — we don’t necessarily interact with them, but there’s a cause and effect. It’s a crazy Bombay thing, one night’s pagalpan,” explains Akshay.

Akshay, who is sharing the screen space with Saif for the first time, says the latter is the most giving actor on the planet! “Saif is amazing. He has been great to me, absolutely supportive, gives great advice and connects with me every so often,” he says, appreciatively adding, “Saif has had his share of struggle. I know this whole debate (on nepotism) is rife, but he has worked really hard — see how long it took him to get somewhere — he has paid his dues, so he understands somebody in my position,” says Akshay, who made his debut in Isi Life Mein in 2010 and has since then done films like Pizza, Fitoor and Laal Rang, that haven’t done well at the box office. Kaalakaandi will be his big outing with a star.

Interestingly, Akshay has a lot of things in common with the Rangoon actor. “We share similar tastes. It could be because he spent a lot of time in England and I was in the US for the major part of my life. We have the same music tastes, we find similar things funny — our sensibilities are in line. The fact that he chose to do Kaalakaandi it’s incredible. For me, there was no question, it’s a great role and I would die to do it. Saif has so many different commercial things to choose from, but he chose this — I am not saying this is not commercial — but it’s in a different space,” he gushes.

Prod him on the kind of music he and Saif like and he says, “I have been to his house and he has this amazing music system with a record player attached to it. Both of us like Rock and Roll, the ’70s classic rock, Jazz, Blues, etc. We even like the same artistes!”