Akshay Kumar, the Khiladi Kumar of bollywood who plays the main lead in Vipul Shah’s upcoming flick ‘Action Replay’ opposite Aishwarya Rai, has worn a wig especially designed by Hollywood make- up artist Paul Pattison to give him a genuine 1970s look in the film.




The flick which is loosely inspired by HG Wells ‘Time Machine’ has Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai going into 1970s mode and for this to look real even the hair styles of junior artistes were made under the supervision of Pattison at ND Desai studio in Karjat. However, before going for the wig, Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai researched extensively about the mannerism and behavior of the real people of 1970s.



Sources say that instead of adopting the easy route of watching some movies of that era, Akki decided to watch the live cricket matches of that period to have a hang of all this. It was through watching television footage of that era that director Vipul Shah and Akshay agreed to give the wig work to Paul Pattison, who had earlier worked in big Hollywood flicks like ‘Mission Impossible 2’ and ‘ Braveheart’.

Akshay Kumar, who has worked with Vipul Shah in several of his blockbusters like ‘Singh Is King’, ‘Namaste London’ etc, also insisted on creating a right ambience for the flick by creating suitable surroundings, especially cars. These cars were borrowed from all over the country and taken to the studio to create the aura of that era.

However, it was the procurement of BEST buses of that era for the film that proved most troublesome for the energetic director. He had to go through a lot of formalities with the officials to get the genuine buses of that era, which were in any case hardly available after the older fleet had been replaced with new one.

Vipul Shah becomes upset when ‘Action Replay’ is compared with Shah Rukh Khan’s Farah Khan directed flick ‘Om Shanti Om’. As Shah Rukh Khan’s film was also based in the nineteen seventies, the grapevine has it that Vipul Shah latest flick is much like ‘Om Shanti Om’. However, Vipul Shah flatly denies it by saying that there was no similarity between the two.

After the debacle of Salman Khan-Asin starrer ‘London Dreams’ at the box office, Vipul Shah has once again returned to his favorite hero Akshay Kumar with this film and hopes to create magic on celluloid. Even the pairing of Aishwarya Rai with Akki has some novelty factor.