Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; December 23, 2019)

As actors, it’s taken them a few years to reunite on the big screen. As friends, they’ve stuck it out all these years. He’s a part of her inner circle, and they have both seen each other grow from strength to strength. Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor Khan share a cool connection that dates back to the time when they were both not the movie stars they are today, which is evident in the way they play the urban chic Batras in Raj Mehta’s Good Newwz. Ahead of the film’s release, they spoke to BT about their deep connect, taking risky choices, and why it was essential to make a film on a subject like IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation). Excerpts...

Good Newwz is your 10th film together as lead actors in the last 20 years. Do you remember the first time you two met?
Kareena: I was there when he gave his first shot. Lolo (Karisma Kapoor) was the heroine of Deedar (1992), which they were shooting together. That day, I had come from school to Poonawala Bungalow at Madh Island, where they were filming. It was almost 30 years ago, and I was all of nine. I’ve known him since then.
Akshay: Actually, we’ve met even before that. We were doing a photo-shoot in her building, Excellency, in Lokhandwala. I was trying my best to come into the industry at that time, and was not even an actor. It’s like literally saying, ‘Once upon a time when I met Kareena Kapoor…’

Akshay, how would you assess Kareena’s rise as an actor from the time she started out two decades ago, to now, when she’s making daring choices, and pushing the envelope like never before?
Akshay: Kareena is like wine that gets better with every passing year.
Kareena: Cuts in… Says the man who has never tasted wine! I know what wine tastes like because I have it. He doesn’t have all this (laughs!).
Akshay: Main aisa bhi doodh ka dhula nahi hoon! (laughs!) I have tasted wine.
Kareena: If you insist! But I only see you having doodh, nuts and sprouts all the time. That’s all he eats.
Akshay: On a serious note, I remember the first song that I shot with her for Ajnabee (2001) at Ramoji Rao Studios (Hyderabad). At that time, she didn’t know what camera angles were and how things worked. She was supposed to seduce me in the song in a tiny nightie. I was protective of her as she was very naïve. And now, she knows camera angles so well that the camera romances her. She will do everything to get a shot right. The kind of face she has and the way it attracts the camera is amazing. But yeh iski wajah se nahi hai. It’s because of her parents (laughs!). Sometimes, when I’m watching my own films that feature her, main isko dekhna chahta hoon. From the way she looks, I think she can never play a hero’s mother or the typical maa ke roles. I also like the fact that she has defied the belief that married actresses don’t get work in this industry. She did that with the to-hell-with-you-guys attitude.
Kareena: I don’t have to worry about anything as long as I have a career like Akshay Kumar’s.
Akshay: Bebo has played roles on her own terms. She has always been a risk-taker. Some of them have paid dividends and some haven’t. Like Ajnabee, our first film together, was about wife-swapping, which was a novel concept in Bollywood. Our next is about sperm swapping, also a new idea. Ab aur kya kya swap hoga pata nahi!

Kareena, if you had to analyse Akshay’s journey from the time when he was your sister Karisma’s colleague to now, when he’s paired with you, what would you say?
Kareena: I’ve known him from the time when all of us lived in Lokhandwala. Having seen him from the time when he gave his first shot for a film, to now, it’s been an amazing journey. My mother (Babita) took to him from the time she first got to know him. Even now, each time there is an Akshay Kumar film in theatres, she watches it with her bunch of friends. Although she has a take on other films, she’s biased towards his movies. For her, he is a son, and family to all of us. Akshay’s path has been his own and he can credit that to no one, but himself. He made all the choices with the belief that he will become the star that he is today, and he did it with dedication. He proved everyone wrong and today, along with stardom he’s regarded as a fine actor. Saif (Ali Khan), Lolo, mom — we all love him. We have a relationship that goes beyond the meets-and-greets and photo-ops. It’s unexplained, unwritten and beautiful.
Akshay: There’s a little story that I want to tell. So, we were shooting Talaash: The Hunt Begins (2003) at Ras al Khaimah many years ago. My wife Tina (Twinkle Khanna) was two months pregnant at that time. We had to go across a water body and while getting on to a boat, I carried Babita aunty in my arms. Aaj tak meri biwi sunati hai, ‘You carried Babita aunty and you didn’t carry me at that time!’ (Laughs!)



Five-seven years ago, would you both have imagined that you would headline a film like Good Newwz that explores the subject of IVF?
Akshay: If a film like Good Newwz had come my way even 15 years ago, I would have done it. The thing is, in those days, neither was I a producer nor were people writing such strong and socially relevant stories with a funny vein. I was just an actor then, and I didn’t have the money to back films. Agar mere paas itne paise tab hote, to maine aisi picturein bahut pehle banana shuru kar diya hota. I would have loved to back a film like Ajnabee or Aitraaz as a producer. These films were made 15 years ago, and they offered a unique spin on man-woman relationships, infidelity, and wife-swapping. I would jump at these scripts and so would Kareena. People didn’t have the guts to do something new. When I became a producer, I made it my one-point agenda to look for relevant subjects that people don’t want to speak about.
Kareena: I just feel that choices make a very big difference. After Taimur was born, I was reading scripts and Veere Di Wedding (2018) came back to my table. While offering the film, Rhea (Kapoor, producer) had told me, ‘I know you won’t do it because there are three other girls in the film, but hear it at least.’ When I was at the interval point in the narration, I was clear that I would do it and I told her so. You need to change your mindset and move with the times. We’ve seen dynamics being discussed with the bro-code in Dil Chahta Hai (2001) and other such films, but no one had ever spoken of sisterhood among women. It was cool for a mainstream, commercial actress to back the film.

When a film revolves around a sensitive subject like IVF, words like sperm, eggs and ovulation find their way into a script. Is it true that when the Good Newwz trailer was played out on a show, the makers beeped out the word, ‘sperm’?
Akshay: Yes, it happened and it’s sad. We recently went on a show to promote Good Newwz where the trailer was played, and the word ‘sperm’ was beeped out. They didn’t beep out egg, which the girls (Kareena and Kiara Advani) use frequently in the trailer. I was forced to ask, ‘Kaun bewakoof hai jisne yeh kiya hai? Maine koi gaali nahi di hai. Maine wahi shabd bola hai jiski paidaish woh khud hai.’ People should stop beeping out words and asking us to tone down things unless necessary. Beep kyun kar rahe ho? Sperm, menstruation, pad, egg, orgasm are all real things that happen in our lives. When people sit with friends, they talk about the same things that filmmakers are asked to beep out. That’s not fair!
Kareena: It’s such a brave thing to broach this important subject through a film and it’s been dealt with in a light way. Of course, the story gets its due in the second half and the emotions come to the fore. It comes to a point where women, who are key drivers of this story, take charge. They are the ones carrying the babies and what they think and feel makes a very big difference, in the film, and also in real life.
Akshay: I have seen the entire film and I can say that it entertains and educates. You can take your kids to watch it, too. It’s a film that underlines the technology that has made so many families so happy. So many women, who thought their clock is ticking away and that their careers might have to take a backseat because they ought to have a baby at a certain time, feel relieved. It’s important for everyone to watch this film as it will open your eyes and minds to a great technology.