Actor Akshay Oberoi is currently busy taking piano lessons to slip under the skin of a pianist for his upcoming project. The actor says that he has always been fond of music and is “excited” that he is finally able to learn an instrument.

He shares, “I’ve been meaning to learn it for a while now. That’s one of the best parts of being an actor. You learn new skills. I would feel let down by myself if I discontinue playing it after the five to six classes that I’ve had. I’m happy to learn it, as it will help my knowledge of music get deeper.”

Talking about the importance of music in his life, Oberoi says, “I keep listening to music throughout the day, be it in my vanity, car or home. Even my son, Avyaan, is obsessed with music. I also use it a lot for my work in terms of prepping for a character.”

The Madam Chief Minister actor believes that learning any form of art helps a performer hone their craft. “(Konstantin) Stanislavsky, the greatest acting teacher of all times, used to say that the best actors are those who are learned in every form of art,” he says, elaborating, “There’s an inherent rhythm in the piano and learning it can also help you with time scale. Similarly, an actor needs to grasp a certain rhythm and time for every dialogue. All art forms help feed off of each other.”

But this isn’t the first time that he has tried to make his characters look believable: “For Flesh, I learnt Bengali and went to Kamathipura. For Pizza (2014), I slept in a cemetery to get what it feels to be very scared. I always do things that help me delve deep to get the truth out of me while performing.”

While the ramp has been her mainstay, Parvathy Omanakuttan (Miss World 2008 first runner-up) has been steadily making inroads into filmdom. After her last release Pizza, the leggy beauty is all set to sign a Tamil film soon. Says Parvathy, “If things work out, this will be my second Tamil film. And I will be paired opposite a big actor. As far as Pizza goes, it was a learning experience. My co-star was good and so was the director, who is so young, and yet had such a clear vision of what he wanted.“

Meanwhile, she has auditioned for a Marathi film and is looking to try her luck in the Telugu industry as well. Says l she, “I am from Kerala but was brought up in Mumbai. For me, picking up languages is very easy, which is why I don't want to limit myself in any way. I would love to experiment with a Telugu film.“

Alongside films and fashion, she is also investing time in setting up a food-based business. “My dad has been in the industry for over 28 years and that experience is extremely valuable,“ she says, adding, “I have to meet people and start this with my dad soon.“

Parvathy Omanakuttan, 27, is a complete Mallu when it comes to her food, religion or following traditions. She is intelligent and would rather talk about things in the world as against just about lipsticks and fashion.
She is emotional and self-respecting with strong values. Ahead of her upcoming thriller Pizza, this Miss India 2008 talks about her mentor Hemant Trivedi, her love for travel and why modelling is easier for girls than boys. Excerpts:

How did you become a Miss India?
I am a Mallu born in Kerala, but brought up in Mumbai. My father retired as an F&B manager of a five-star hotel and my mother is a housewife. 'Omanakuttan' is my dad's name. My dad used to walk to his school in Kerala. Normally he would just go and sit in class, but on one occasion, his teacher asked his name and on the spur of the moment he said, 'Omanakuttan' (like how we say Chintu Baba in Hindi). His teacher wrote that in the register and that became his name. I have always been very adventurous and so, while growing up, I wanted to become an air force pilot flying the MiG-21 fighter planes, but coming from a Mallu family, I have always been held back.

Surprisingly, while I was always this tomboy with most of my friends being boys, I always remember watching Miss India very keenly from when I was very young. When I was in class IX, I had this big fight with this guy and my teacher, who was a Mallu, said, 'Don't you have any shame beating up this guy?
What do you want to do in life?' I realised that day that we live in a society, which is so male-dominated. I was studying in Mithibai College, when Hemant Trivedi, who was at that time choreographing Miss India, was also choreographing one of the inter-college events, in which I was participating. He suggested that I go for Miss India and that is really the first time that I thought of it. So I decided to participate in the Navy Queen at Vizag, which gave me a straight entry into Miss India South. I won that and got a straight entry into Miss India, which I won and went to represent our country at the Miss World pageant. But not winning Miss World was a very emotional moment for me. Everybody was rooting for me, but somehow I had this feeling that something is going wrong. When they announced the first runner up, standing on stage, I had this thought that they will announce my name, even though I knew that I had outperformed everybody else. The biggest source of support was the South African audience and even the parents of the other contestants, who were rooting for me. When my name was announced, the entire hall went silent and that kind of hit me as reality. I could have broken down, but I saw my mother and she waved to me saying keep smiling. And that kind of gave me the strength to hold on. I cried after the crowning when all the contestants hugged me and said, 'You are our Miss World.' The Miss World Russia, who had won, was also shocked, as no one was congratulating her. Miss India gave me a lot of recognition and a lot of work, be it modelling, getting ads or films in the South.

How did you get the lead role in Pizza?
I had done a Tamil film with superstar Ajith titled Billa 2. While the film did not do well, Anirudh Ravi Chander (who composed the music of Kolaveri Di) became my friend. On one of the trips that he came to Mumbai, I was having dinner with him, when Bejoy Nambiar came to see him for something and met me. A few months later, I got a call from Bejoy's office to audition for Pizza. I had heard a lot about the Tamil film which had been a super hit and liked the script. I was auditioned and selected for the role.

You have again gone back to modelling after a gap in between.
I have always loved travelling and for me, modelling was also a way of doing that. I got my passport first made in the final year of my exams and travelled for the first time abroad for a fashion show in between my two exams, as I didn't want to lose the opportunity of travelling. Fashion is quite like acting where you are putting up a face of what you are not in reality. I started modelling when I was 18, but gave it up completely after becoming a Miss India as I wanted to be an actor. I am very independent and never wasted my parents' money or depended on them financially. Had I continued doing modelling, I would have reached another level of respect, but I gave it up for films. I am an extremely self-respecting person and had decided for myself that no matter what, I would not cross the line to bag a role. I had two senior directors making direct suggestions to me, but I refused. So there was a period when I was neither modelling nor doing films. And that was very difficult. Just sitting at home doing nothing kind of puts you down emotionally and physically. I decided to go back to modelling, but it had become that much more difficult, but again I started from scratch and due to being a Miss India, I got work. A lot of designers like me as I am tall, rounded (not skinny) and am easy to work with without any tantrums. It's a well-known fact that modelling is way easier for women than men, as many of our designers are gay.

Talk about Hemant Trivedi?
He is like my elder brother. He had told my parents after working with me the first time, 'She will make you proud one day'. In 2000, he had a terrible accident, where he went into coma for 40 days. I believe he moved for the first time, when they told him that Lara Dutta had won Miss Universe. He had moved his fingers listening to that and that is when the doctors said there was a chance for him to survive. He did and he is now 54 and is a very strong source of support to me.

Have your parents been supportive in your career choice?
I am very close to my parents. My father was a little apprehensive before, but mom was very supportive and has always encouraged me to do whatever I wanted. She is the biggest source of support for me. My parents are conservative, but with time they have changed and have given me a lot of freedom. They put no restrictions on me and know all my friends. My father has always taught me that you need to first love yourself in order to love others. My father doesn't like the fact that a woman in today's world should sit at home and do nothing. I wanted to study abroad, but never wanted to put any financial pressure on my father. I instead chose to start modelling at 18 and supporting myself and my family, financially. Even though my parents have given me all the freedom, it hits them like an arrow when I tell them the opportunities I have given up to take up films, due to my value system. But I am self-respecting and I am proud of that.

Given the upcoming thriller Pizza, which is a story about a pizza delivery boy, whose delivery goes horribly wrong, we decided to meet a few real-life delivery pizza boys to find out if they had encountered something unusual while delivering pizzas. While we did not hear any horror stories, we heard some starry tales.

Subhash Chand Jaiswal has done his M.A. and has been a delivery boy since 14 years in Bandra. He makes about Rs 12,000 a month, including tips and delivers about 18-20 pizzas a day.

HIS EXPERIENCES:

Once I delivered to a man who was completely drunk. He took the pizza, didn't pay the money and banged the door on my face. Sometimes people are drunk and either they don't pay or they will abuse you. Sometimes if there is a building where the lights are off on the staircase and you need climb up a few floors, you feel very scared as you can get hurt. But then you have to somehow manage, go and ring the bell. I have once delivered a pizza to Jackie Shroff where sir himself took the pizza from me and paid me.
I love going to Salman Khan's house (in Galaxy building) for delivering his pizza. We get orders from his house at least once or twice a week. While most of the time, his guards or his housemaid pays, once in a while even his sister Arpita pays. While Salman Bhai has never paid me directly, I have seen him many times and he will say, 'Hi' when he sees me. Salman Khan jaisa pizza ka order kissi ka bhi nahi aata. Woh bahut zyada topping lete hain. He orders chicken tikka pizza and on top he takes double chicken toppings with American corn, black olive and capsicum.


We showed Salman the picture of this pizza boy and he immediately recognised him and said, “Yes, I order either double chicken topping pizza or seafood pizza without squid or octopus. Also I don't like onions and tomatoes as toppings but love American corn and capsicum toppings.“

Rakesh Yadav has been working as a delivery boy since 6 years and makes about Rs 10,000 a month, including tips.
HIS EXPERIENCES:
When I go to a new bungalow at night, I get a bit scared when I ring the bell. Once, there was a delivery where my manager told me that the customer was angry as the delivery was already late. The customer asked me why I had come late. I explained to him and he said, 'I will not give you the money' and shut the door. I rang the bell again but he opened the door and said, 'do whatever you like, I will not give you the money'. I returned after an hour and this time, he gave me the money .

I have delivered pizzas to Lara Dutta and Vinod Kambli's houses and was delighted when they took the delivery and gave me the money. I have been to Aamir Khan's house too and I remember I saw him sitting on the ground just like normal people. His wife Kiran Rao took the delivery. I didn't meet him, but just seeing him made me smile.

Sagar Shyamrao Bellure makes about Rs 13,000 as a delivery boy and delivers 18-20 pizzas a day.
HIS EXPERIENCES:
I delivered to Remo D'Souza and he gave me Rs 100 as tip. Usually we get about Rs 20-30 as tip, celebrities pay us more and then there are customers also who do not give who do not give us any tip. Some customers will tell us that they will not pay us till we return the exact change. We have to rush to deliver the pizza as the customer is hungry and gets angry if we are late and so we drive very fast and also carefully as, if we reach late, they will complain against us. If we are very late, we need to say sorry. If the police sometimes stop us, we have no time so we rush leaving the vehicle papers along with our licence with them and come back to collect it as we can't waste time.

It's not often that one sees multiple remakes and adap tations of a film in a short span of time. One such rarity is the 2012 Tamil film, Pizza, which has now been adapted in Hindi and is set for a worldwide release. Featuring Akshay Oberoi in the lead, the movie has been shot entirely in 3D.

After the original became a hit, it was first dubbed in Telugu and then remade in Kannada as Whistle. Both became box office hits and won appreciation from critics. Its Bengali remake, Golpo Holeo Shotti, released last week. While all these have stayed faithful to the original, debutant director Akshay Akkineni has added interesting twists to the Hindi version.

As producer Bejoy Nambiar says, “While we have retained the magic of the original film, we wanted to dwell upon all those elements that make Pizza a high concept suspense thriller. By adding more thrills and that too in 3D, what we have here is a completely new experience for the audience, whether they have seen the Tamil film or not."

Pizza, produced by UTV Spotboy and Getaway Films, releases July 18. 

The makers of the upcoming suspense thriller Pizza (in 3D) recently came up with a unique marketing gimmick. The film's lead actor, Akshay Oberoi, delivered a pizza to Emraan Hashmi, which had toppings that looked like cut fingers, eye sockets and hair strands.

While the actor was initially repulsed, he found the promotional strategy rather innovative. The duo then got talking about supernatural experiences and Emraan jokingly said, “I'd love to meet a sexy female ghost."

The actor chatted at length with Akshay about the film in which he plays a pizza delivery boy, who gets locked in a haunted house and faces his moment of fear.

Pizza, produced by UTV Spotboy and Getaway Films, releases July 18.

The director of the upcoming horror film Pizza 3D, Akshay Akkineni, had a special request for his producers.

From what a unit member told Mirror, the director cancelled shoots on the 13th of every month, after he narrowly escaped a bulb which crashed inches away from his head on one such allegedly inauspicious date.
Revealed a source, “Much to the annoyance of producer Bejoy Nambiar, Akshay just wouldn’t agree to shoot on the 13th since he believed it would bring the film bad luck.” However, after a point, Bejoy put his foot down and asked him to carry on with the filming, even if it meant shooting on the unlucky day. But Akshay wouldn't relent until a pooja was performed on the sets to ward off the evil eye."

When contacted, Akshay admitted that he was afraid to shoot on the supposedly unlucky day. “We were filming a spooky scene in the mental ward of a city hospital on the day. I felt creepy and decided no shoots would happen on the unlucky date after one 13th fell on a Friday," he asserted.

Ask him his reasons and he says, “I believe in spirits. And it's not just me, our entire unit was scared. I had a close shave when a bulb, my production designer had fitted, broke on my head. Why welcome unnecessary trouble?” So, did he insist on a pooja? “Yes, Bejoy was not happy about it but I felt comfortable after it was done," he says.

When we contacted Bejoy, he said, “Akshay is superstitious. We also had to stall the shoot for a day because he insisted on that pooja. The unit was also apprehsenive as we were shooting a spooky movie."