Pahlaj Nihalani, chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), wants actor Akshay Kumar to play the role of India’s prime minister Narendra Modi.
Nihalani expressed his wish while talking to a daily. “I can’t think of anyone better to play our prime minister than Akshay," he said. "He has a spotless image of an idealist and visionary. Also, Akshay has risen from humble working class beginnings to become a national star, just like Modiji. We are certainly looking at a strong possibility of Akshay playing Modiji.”
That was not all. Nihalani compared Akshay Kumar’s work with that of Hindi cinema legends like Guru Dutt and V Shantaram. “Look at the kind of work he is doing. Toilet: Ek Prem Katha and Padman are the cinema of social reform that Guru Dutt and V Shantaram were associated with,” he said.
A couple of years ago, actor and BJP MP Paresh Rawal was supposed to play Modi in a biopic. But the film never took off. The actor had even spoken about it and said Modi had no problem with the making of the film. “He has no issues about it. When I told him about this, his first response was, ‘Film banani hai, toh bana lo.’ For those suggesting that Modi will be monitoring the film, let me tell you he won’t. It’s a massive responsibility being an actor to portray a leader of such great stature,” he had said.
Actors like Victor Banerjee and Anupam Kher were pitched to play Modi in two different biopics. But nothing happened with these projects too. Kher, as we know, will now be playing India’s ex-prime minister Manmohan Singh in The Accidental Prime Minister.
Akshay Kumar is currently shooting for Padman, a biopic of social innovator Arunachalam Padmanabhan, who invented low-cost sanitary napkins for the women of his village. He will also be part of another biopic, Mogul, in which he essays the role of late music baron Gulshan Kumar.