Akshay Kumar turns guide for ‘Thank You’ director

Spicezee Bureau

Mumbai: In Bollywood, it is ubiquitously known that A-list stars have choc-a-bloc date diaries. However, when ‘Thank You’ director Anees Bazmee approached Khiladi Kumar, Akshay could spare a whole month. Yet, despite getting the green-signal from the actor, Bazmee was in a fix, for the director couldn’t get the foreign locale of his choice. News has it that Bazmee was unable to zero in on a suitable location. The ‘Singh Is Kinng’ and ‘Welcome’ director, who had already turned down numerous foreign locations like South Africa, Australia, Prague, London and Istanbul was distressed over the fact that he couldn’t find a perfect locale for ‘Thank You.’ Nevertheless, seeing his favourite director in trouble, Akshay came forward to Bazmee’s rescue and suggested that they can shoot ‘Thank You’ in Toronto and Vancouver. With Akshay having an honorary Canadian citizenship, the actor got all the help from the Canadian embassy in order to arrange the visas for the entire cast and crew of the film. Talking to a news daily, a source from the film said, “Even the Canadian film commission and the government were extremely helpful once they realised that Akshay is acting in the film and they extended great support for locations and permissions.” Meanwhile, ‘Thank You’ director Anees Bazmee confirmed the news and said, “It is amazing once we decided to shoot in Vancouver all things started falling in place. Within no time permissions, ground support and visas were sorted. It felt as if it was meant to be. Now I should say thank you, Akshay.”