After Blue I'd have been wiped out if Akshay Sir hadn't supported me: Anthony D'Souza

Blue director Anthony D’Souza would have gone into oblivion were it not for Akshay Kumar’s support. Anthony’s Boss opened to packed houses in single theatres across the country the director marvels at the miracle his career makeover. Sighs Anthony, “How do I feel? No I don’t feel vindicated, just happy and relieved that my producers will make money. My film opened very well at the single theatres. It is an out-and-out masala entertainer. You can’t judge it by the same standards as Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox. That is not right. My film is a different genre from The Lunchbox. And they are both for a different audience.” Anthony’s understanding of the language of the commercial Hindi cinema is quite evident in Boss. “I guess Akshay and I have grown up watch the films of Mr Bachchan and this is our humble homage to that style of filmmaking.” Boss also departs radically from the original Malayalam film Pokkiri Raja. “We were very sure there were elements from the original that we could take and many elements that did not suit Hindi-speaking audiences. Even the action sequences are very different. They are more realistic. We had a one-on-one fight between Akshay and Ronit Roy in climax that wasn’t there in Pokkiri Raja.” Anthony is grateful to his entire team for making this difficult film happen. “And specially Anal Arasu, the stunt director. He had done Rowdy Rathod. Akshay Kumar and my co-producer Ashwin Warde saw Anal Arasu’s work and got him into this film.” Anthony says he has gravitated towards a more commercial language because of the failure of Blue. “I tried a different language in Blue. I failed. So I gravitated towards a conventional commercial language. What attracted me to Pokkiri Raja was the father-son story. I lost my father when I was 14. Akshay too remains deeply attached to his father although he is no more. In fact Akshay Sir’s father gave me my first break to make a commercial while I got my first feature film Blue because of Akshay Sir.” Anthony can’t stop thanking Akshay for his support. “After Blue I’d have been wiped out if Akshay Sir hadn’t supported me. I never went to any actor after Blue. It was only Akshay Kumar for me. I just wanted a script that I could connect with. It was Ashwin Warde who came to me with the idea of remaking Pokkiri Raja. Ashwin has stood solidly behind me.” And now Anthony is planning an aerial adventure drama. “It’s a pet subject. It’s a project close to my heart. And I want to make it the way I do. I am happy Boss has been accepted. More than myself I am glad for my wife who has gone through three years of uncertainty. And my 8-year old son loves Boss.”