Akshaykumar-thebollywoodking

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Hi, I´m Akhay Kumar. I´m six foot one and weigh 80 kilos, though at times I wish I were two inches taller.

I was born in old Dehli. When I was a child we used to stay in Chandni Chowk, on a street called Parothewali Galli, explains why I can´t resist parothas (comment of the writer: parothas is a sort of Indian bread) even today!

My father worked for UNICEF. Having been a sportsman himself – he was a wrestler in his younger days – he always encouraged me to participate in sports. He used to tell me that if I wasn´t brilliant in studies it was okay, as long as I was selected vice-captain of my school volleyball team.

He used to accompany me to every match. None of the other student´s parents came but Dad used to take half day off from work and come for every match. In between

sets, he would give the players water to drink and even wipe the perspiration from my forchead with a towel!

Now that I´m an actor, he is my biggest fan. He has watched every film of mine, even the flop ones, many times over. He saw "Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi" 13 times! B ut more than that, I am a big fan of his. I admire him and would like to be just like him. He is patience personified, cool even in the worst of situations. Altough we were not financially well-off earlier, he made us feel very secure. He never allowed us to feel as if we were lacking in anything.

Saturday was his day off, so every Saturday he took us all to watch a film at rupam cinema.It was our regular cinema and the management always kept tickets for the Saturday evening show for us.

I have always been very attached to my mother. Even today, whenever she is out of town, I fall ill. When I go for outdoor schedules, I fall ill.

My sister is closest to me. She is the one who knows all my secrets. I have never cried as much as I did the day she got married. Today although she stays in Mumbai, I still miss her a lot and makes sure she lives with us atleast for a few days every month.

She has been my worst critic. And I make it a point to show her all my films because, she would pointblank tell me if the film is good or bad. She can smell a bad film from a mile. If she listen to just one song of a film, she can tell how good the film will be.

Sometimes I narrate a script to her before signing a film. There were times hen she and my family did not like a script I had narrated but when I went ahead and did the film, thinking I knew it all. But in the end, they were right.

Since childhood, my sister has been a very talented painter. In fact, for my bedroom in the new house she has painted ten-foot long oil painting.

My strong point, on the other hand, has always been sports. I have been connected with the word "khiladi" ever since my schooldays. I used to play volleyball and cricket. There was also a game called sqareball which was played only in our school, Don Bosco´s. No other school knew it. It´s a very rough game in which you hit the opponent with a football and try to knock him down. Sometimes I remember, boys used to fall flat on their faces and injure themselve

In the school, we had a small gang called the "bloody 10". There was Thomas, Ramson, Charles, Amit, Jignesh, Rohit Shetty, Monty and me. They have all gone their separate ways. Amit is a homeopath somewhere outside Mumbai. Ramson, I have heard, has become a lawyer. Charles is into politics. Jignesh is into rice business so we tease him "baniya".

When I meet them today, they say, "Kamaal kiya yaar (comment of the writer: well done, friend) we never thought you would become a film star!" I tell them even I never imagined it! It´s just a coincidence.

In my childhood my parents had got my `kundali´ made many times, but no astrologer had ever predicted that I would become a star.

Another friend of mine from school, I remember, was Ashok Shandilya, who is now one of India´s best snooker players.

He used to sit with me in class. I still remember once our whole group was angry with him so we put a laxative in his "paan". He had a very "loose" day after that!

Unfortunatley, I haven´t been able to get in touch with him after s chool. I hope he reads this and calls me up.

Through a friend in school that I first came to know about martial arts.

I was very thin at the time, weighing barely 60 kilos. Watching my friend become tougher day by day, thanks karate, I began to feel insecure and so I asked him to take me along.

Later I got so involved in it that I continued to go, long after he lost interest.

My father had promised me, that if I going to get a first clas in my board exams he would send me to Bangkok to study martial arts. I scored 63 percent so he paid for me flight ticket, which, at that time, cost hardly Rs. 1500.

In Bangkok, I was received at the airport by my uncle and he got me a job at the Metro Guest House. My first salary was 1000 baht (around Rs. 1500). It was more than enough to survive.

Food was no problem, because we worked in a restaurant. In fact, we used to get fed up of seeing food all around us. Even while we were cooking we always grabbed a few bites. I was not exactly a chef but I knew enough cooking to survive. And fortunately even the customers who ate my food survived!

At night, I slept in the kitchen. In the plush "bedroom" there was a video and TVon which I watched Hindi films. I remember "Himmatwala", "Tohfaa"... We used to love Sridevi´s films.

During the day, we used to dance to the songs of the films while cooking. Inspite of the hard life, we really enjoyed ourselves