Playing the villain in 2.0 tested Akshay Kumar’s patience, made him a better person

Akshay Kumar said that the process of prosthetics during the making of 2.0 taught him patience. He also opens up on daughter Nitara’s reaction to his scary avatar in the film.

Akshay Kumar, who features as the villain in the much-awaited, high-budget entertainer 2.0 starring Rajinikanth, went through an elaborate prosthetic make-up process for his character. The actor says it was quite a test of his patience and that it has calmed him down.

Akshay Kumar plays the “destroyer” in 2.0, which stars Rajinikanth in the lead role.

“It was really a hard process for me to get the prosthetics done. For almost three and a half hours, I had to sit down quietly and do nothing. Three people used to work on my body and I had to stay patient...that was tough. I would say that the whole process of prosthetics made me a much calmer and patient person.

 

“I am already a patient person, but this made me more subtle and mellow at that time,” Akshay told a select group of media here on Monday.

The procedure used to not end there as the removal of the make-up required one and a half hours. The actor found it quite painful. In fact, Akshay had to stay on a liquid diet of water, smoothies and juices during his shooting schedule.

“When I used to go back home, I knew that I have to do the same thing again tomorrow morning. The make-up was so hard and covered that it used to close all the pores of my body and during my entire six hours of working, my body sweat used to not come out. So in the end when they used to remove the prosthetic, I had the smell of sweat,” shared the actor, who feels fortunate to have worked with iconic southern Indian filmmaker S Shankar in the Rajinikanth film.

 

Akshay is working with Shankar for the first time. “We used to speak in Marathi on the sets and we used to enjoy that. Shankar is a brilliant director to work with and he is a very humble man. It was so interesting to see how he would add a quirk of entertainment in any or every dialogue of our daily conversation.”

“He is a very professional person. He narrated me the whole story, the screenplay and I knew each character of the film from the beginning. I was impressed by the concept and wondered why nobody has explored the subject so far,” said Akshay

The film that reportedly had a budget of Rs 543 crore is considered the most expensive film of India made in 3D. The actor urges the audience to watch the film in 3D at the theatre.

“This film is not converted into a 3D film after shooting, but originally shot in 3D format and therefore the whole experience was different for us. It will be a unique experience for the audience as well,” said the actor.

2.0 is a sequel of the commercially successful sci-fi Rajinikanth-starrer Enthiran, which released in 2010.

So, what was the first thing Akshay did after he saw his first look? “I clicked a lot of selfies with my family. My wife and daughter were there with me. My daughter was quite excited to see me in the look and she was not scared at all...because she saw that some people are putting something on her father’s face. She was fine,” he said.

Talking about the message of the film, Akshay said, “There is a moment in the story that emphasizes the other living creatures on planet earth. It says that the planet not only belongs to the human race but also to animals and birds. Though animals and plants cannot raise their voice against human beings, they have the right to live. So do not spoil the mother nature.”

The movie, which also features Amy Jackson, will release on Thursday in 14 languages including Tamil, Hindi and Telugu. Karan Johar is presenting the Hindi version of the film.