Akshay Kumar, who is playing a hockey coach in Reema Kagti-directed Gold, said that there is no similarity between Shah Rukh Khan's Chak De! India and his film since both are totally "different" from each other, news agency PTI reported. "Everything will be a competition. For me, it is all about doing a good film. Chak De! India was a different story, Gold is different. It is frivolous to even think like that or competing with that film. Don't compare it, it is all different," PTI quoted the actor as saying. Both the films revolve around the theme of field hockey but stories are set in two different timelines. GoldChak De! India was inspired by Indian women's national field hockey team's win at the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
Shah Rukh Khan played the coach of the women's national field hockey team in the film. Chak De! India, which released in 2007 did phenomenal business at the box office. The film received immense appreciation on release. Shah Rukh as well as his squad were appreciated for their impeccable acting prowess and went to on to receive several awards that year.
As mentioned earlier, Akshay Kumar plays the character of Tapan Das, a funny but diligent man, who builds the hockey team from scratch to win the Olympic gold. Speaking about his character, Akshay said: "He is a controversial guy. He is a drunk and a cheater. But within a year, he brought 11 people together, made a team and went for the Olympics, won the gold medal. I felt this story was unbelievable and needed to be told."
In the interview to PTI, Akshay was all-praise for his director Reema Kagti. He said that Reema handled the subject of sports "very well." "Reema is a tough master, she handled the sports thing very well. I salute her. It is commendable. It is a tough film to handle as you are taking the audience to the time period of 1936, then 1947 and 1948, she had to do so much homework. To make a film in that era is a very difficult job," the 50-year-old actor added.
Akshay Kumar also revealed in the interview that before signing the film, he wasn't aware of India's feat at the Olympic long ago. "Before doing this film, I didn't know that we won our first Olympic gold medal in 1948. Most of us don't know when, how, where and in which circumstances we were able to win that gold medal by defeating, on their own turf, England who ruled us for 200 years... so, this kind of things cinema can represent all this in a very nice way," said the actor.
Akshay Kumar's upcoming film Gold hits the screens on Independence Day. The film also features Mouni Roy, who is making her Bollywood debut with the film. Amit Sadh, Kunal Kapoor, Sunny Kaushal, Vineet Kumar Singh also play pivotal roles. The film will clash with John Abraham's Satyamev Jayate at the box office.
(With PTI inputs)
