Sky Force starring Akshay Kumar and Veer Pahariya in the lead roles has released on January 24th and emerged as a hit at the box office. The film is jointly directed by Sandeep Kewlani and Abhishek Anil Kapur. Its star cast also includes Sara Ali Khan, Nimrat Kaur, Sharad Kelkar and others. Recently, Co-Director Abhishek Anil Kapur in an interview spoke about working with Akshay Kumar and how working as Assistant Director for Akshay’s previous film Sarfira under the direction of Sudha Kongara has helped him.
Sky Force Director Abhishek Anil Kapur About Akshay Kumar and Sudha Kongara
Abhishek said “I was very fortunate to work with Sudha Kongara ma’am in Sarfira. She’s a brilliant director. Akshay, meanwhile, is one of the most versatile actors we have today. He can do diverse films, from Sky Force to Airlift to Hera Pheri. Generally, a director likes to have a rapport with the actor exclusively. But on the Sarfira sets, she let me have that equation with Akshay sir. At times, I used to explain the scene to him or rehearse with him. This helped me form a bond with him. We started discussing the creative parts of filmmaking on the sets of Sarfira. Hence, Sky Force happened in a way thanks to the secure approach of Sudha ma’am.”
He also shared how they ensured authenticity in the film. He added “Even though we have changed names to avoid sentiments, we still wanted our film to be as authentic as possible. Back in 1965, smoking was very common among Air Force officials as it was not as taboo, as it is now. We explained to him this aspect. He asked, ‘What do you think? Should I smoke?’. I replied, ‘If you smoke, it’ll help us because, in several scenes, you are in your zone and lost in thoughts. In such shots, it’s always good to show the character indulging in some activity’. His answer was, ‘If you feel I should do it, then I will’.”
“At the same time, we all know that Akshay Kumar is the biggest health-conscious person ever. Hence, he didn’t smoke tobacco cigarettes. Instead, he smoked herbal cigarettes which have zero nicotine. Akshay sir ko hum asli mein kyun smoke karayenge? Neither do I smoke nor does he. And when we have a way out in the form of herbal cigarettes, then why would I make my actor suffer? We just had to make the herbal cigarette look like it’s from 1965.”
Abhishek also spoke about Veer and how they selected him for the role of Tabby. “While casting for Sky Force, we were extremely sure that we needed a debutant for the character Tabby. We were not okay with having an actor with baggage as we wanted the audience to worship Tabby. For that, an actor with a clean slate was required. So, today, when I go out to cinemas, people don’t call him Veer. They call him Tabby (smiles). This wouldn’t have been possible with an established actor.”
Recalling their first meeting and discovering his passion for cinema, Abhishek said “I met Veer first during Bhediya (2022). He had met Dinoo sir (producer Dinesh Vijan) and expressed his desire to act. Dinoo sir wanted to make sure that he was passionate enough about acting and filmmaking. Hence, he worked as my intern on Bhediya sets, directed by Amar Kaushik sir. We made Veer do every possible job under the sun and he was more than happy with the whole process, including the one behind the camera. It gave us an assurance that this guy was not here for fame but because he was passionate”.