Akkshay Gunaawat says, ‘I thought I fit in tall, dark, handsome category and will get work’

• Akkshay Gunaawat calls his role of the lead antagonist in Govinda Naam Mera a dream come true.
• He calls himself a fan of the cinema of 90s who always wanted to do a “full on Bollywood entertainer.”
• In Govinda Naam Mera, Akkshay plays a South Indian with a moustache

This year, actor Akkshay Gunaawat has had three movies come out in a row: Thar, Attack, and Prithviraj. He says that playing the main bad guy in Govinda Naam Mera was a dream come true. The actor got his own character poster for the first time. It introduced him as “Govinda ka kameena sautela bhai” because he played Vicky Kaushal’s stepbrother in the comedy drama. He says he likes 90s movies and has always wanted to do a “full-on Bollywood entertainer” and play a “dhansu” character.  “My character was confident from outside but was vulnerable from inside. I had decided for my character that he is very scared of physical violence,” says Akkshay.

In Govinda Naam Mera, Akkshay plays a South Indian with a moustache who wants Vicky’s run-down bungalow, which is worth “150 crores,” more than anything else.In an interview with Hindustan Times Bollywood meida, Akkshay says, “Director Shashank Khaitan had shot some song sequences for Badrinath Ki Dulhania in Kota and I had watched the shoot from the crowd. Working with the same team was like a dream come true.”

The filming started in March of last year, and because of Covid protocols, the crew couldn’t be too close to each other. “But the scenes were fun,” says Akkshay. The actor also has a funny story about a scene in which his character, Vishnu, met Vicky and his mother and offered them a lot of money to settle their case out of court. He reveals, “The wheelchair I bring for Vicky’s mom is a battery-operated wheelchair. It was fine before the shot but when the entire setup was ready, it stopped working and didn’t start at all. The team decided to pull it with a rope and put mid shots in between. So, we used safety harness and seatbelt and 2-3 people pulled the chair as I sat on it. And the scene was okayed in first take itself.”

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