Kumar the kungfu fighter

BOLLYWOOD star Akshay Kumar has a personal connection with his latest Hollywood-backed film, Chandni Chowk to China.

For starters, the movie is based loosely on his life. He plays Sidhu, a streetside hawker from Chandni Chowk in Delhi who goes to China to learn martial arts.

In real life, Kumar, a martial arts nut, went to Bangkok to learn muay thai. This was after he had obtained a black belt in taekwondo in India.

“I could not afford to go to China, Singapore or Hong Kong. Bangkok was the only place I could go to learn martial arts,” he said over the telephone from London last Sunday, before he was due to attend the movie premiere.

That was more than 20 years ago and he had to earn his keep as a waiter to fulfil his dreams of learning muay thai. The 41-year-old has come a long way since and his visits to Bangkok these days occur in a far more glamorous context.

Chandni Chowk was shot partly in Bangkok, with the rest of the principal photography taking place in China and India.

The movie is about the madcap adventures of a simpleton called Sidhu who is mistaken by two Chinese men as the reincarnation of Chinese hero Liu Sheng.

Sidhu’s opportunistic friend and translator Chopstick (Ranvir Shorey) tricks him into believing that they must make a trip to China. There, Sidhu comes face to face with a vicious village gangster, Hojo (Gordon Liu).

This is Hollywood’s second attempt at breaking into the profitable Bollywood market.

The first Hollywood-backed Bollywood production was the Hindi musical, Saawariya (2007). Backed by Sony Pictures, it earned about US$15mil (RM52.5mil) in 13 countries, according to reports by Variety Asia.

Chandni Chowk has already encountered its first bump on the road, as the Chinese government has denied it a theatrical release in China.

Kumar says he will “keep his fingers crossed that things will eventually work out”. But he is grateful and enthusiastic about his first brush with Hollywood and China.

The international cast and crew involved in the production, helmed by director Nikhil Advani (Kal Ho Na Ho), offered plenty of lessons in cultural differences.

Recalled Kumar of a shoot at the Great Wall of China: “It was supposed to be a 15-day job. But the Chinese cast and crew worked very hard, working 14 to 17 hours a day and we managed to complete it in seven days.”

In the movie, he also spars with veteran Chinese action stars such as Roger Yuan and Gordon Liu in scenes choreographed by stunt co-ordinator Dee Dee Ku, who has worked on movies such as Kill Bill Vol.1 and Vol.2 (2003 and 2004) and Kung Fu Hustle (2004).

“I thought I knew martial arts until I met these Chinese dudes and then I realised how slow I was. I had to learn it all over again,” he said.

Asked if he considered this movie his ticket to Hollywood, the modest Kumar said: “Let me work on promoting this film first and then I’ll think about Hollywood.” – The Straits Times, Singapore / Asia News Network