EXCLUSIVE: “I was so surprised by Akshay Kumar’s reaction to Chumbak,” reveals Swanand Kirkire : Bollywood News

The multi-talented Swanand Kirkire has been impressing the audience with his latest act in the Amazon Prime Video web show Bandwaale, where he plays a brass singer. Along with being a lyricist, singer and screenwriter, he has had quite a few projects where he has impressed as an actor.

EXCLUSIVE: “I was so surprised by Akshay Kumar’s reaction to Chumbak,” reveals Swanand KirkireOne such performance of his came in director Sandeep Modi’s Marathi film Chumbak (2018), where he played an Autistic man. In an exclusive chat with Bollywood Hungama, Kirkire, while talking about Bandwaale, looked back at the film and how it impressed superstar Akshay Kumar, who decided to become a presenter for the movie on the spot.

Kirkire shared his conversation with Akshay for the first time saying, “He was so happy with the film,” said Kirkire. “I was so surprised. He called me aside and said, ‘What a performance you have given!’ He said he didn’t feel that he was watching a character; he felt it’s a real person in front of him. He immediately decided to present the film. It’s not easy. That was a great thing that happened with us.”

Kirkire, however, revealed that he was initially hesitant to take on the role. “When the makers offered me this character, I got scared. I said, ‘This is such a big role’. At that time, I hadn’t even done many acting projects. Today, I have done a lot, so I get less scared. We did a lot of research. There is someone in Sandeep’s relation who is Autistic. We met that person and tried understanding their lives. That’s how we created the character.”

Kirkire said that there are different degrees of Autism in individuals. “We decided on the degree and took guidance from doctors,” he said. “The most important part of those individuals is that they don’t have a subtext. For example, if a person tells someone, ‘I like you’, it can mean that he needs that person for something. This is the subtext. But Autistic individuals don’t have a subtext. If they like or dislike someone, they will say it directly.”

Chumbak saw Kirkire play Prasanna while it also starred Sahil Jadhav in a pivotal role.

Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: Swanand Kirkire on being creator and main actor in Prime Video’s Bandwaale, “To separate both was difficult”; also shares what it means to make a career as lyricist, singer, writer, music composer, actor, all at once: “I hadn’t thought at all of…”

Tags : Akshay Kumar, Autism, Autistic, Bollywood, Bollywood Features, Chumbak, Down Memory Lane, Down The Memory Lane, Features, Flashback, Marathi, Marathi Cinema, Marathi Movie, Reaction, Swanand Kirkire, Throwback

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