Akshay Kumar’s ‘Airlift’ character may win honours

Mumbai: Superstar Akshay Kumar says the real-life character on which his 'Airlift' role is based might win a prestigious honour.

Asked if his character from 'Airlift' deserves a national honour, Akshay said: "Perhaps after watching the film, it will happen."

Akshay plays a character who had a crucial role in the evacuation of Kuwait-based Indians during the Iraq-Kuwait war in 1990.

Another film ‘Neerja’ is also based on a real-life incident, when flight attendant Neerja Bhanot saved many people before laying down her life on a hijacked plane in 1986.

While Neerja received India's highest peacetime honour Ashok Chakra, Akshay's character did not receive any honour.

"The media was so vast during those times, but still no one came to know of it as it was a covert operation due to political reasons," Akshay said.

"The person on which my character is based actually exists. I haven't met him. His name is not Ranjit Katyal, his name is something else. It is only the name of the character and he's not been kept hidden.

"What I play hasn't been modified. My character, his wife and children basically had the chance to escape, but he had numerous workers under him, he decided that first he'll relocate them to a safer place since they had come to work under his responsibility. It is about the greatness of this character," he said.

Akshay has done films like ‘Holiday’, ‘Special 26’ and ‘Baby’ which were issue-based or based on real-life issues.

"This is not commercial cinema. All the characters that you see in the film are not portrayed as colourful or given a commercial angle. It has been portrayed as how it was. It's not a war film, it's basically about how smartly he managed everything and how he took everybody out," Akshay said.

‘Airlift’, which also stars Nimrat Kaur, is releasing on January 22.