Rustom is a fresh film, says Akshay Kumar in Kolkata

“The film is based on four to five incidents and these incidents in the film tried to portray the character of Rustom,” Akshay said.

He was accompanied by his co-stars from the movie, Ileana D'Cruz and Esha Gupta.

Akshay, who has given the audience a taste of patriotism earlier this year with his film Airlift, will be seen portraying the character of Naval Commander Rustom Pavri in this film.

The story of Rustom is inspired by a love triangle in the life of Naval Officer K M Nanavati.

Earlier, two films were made on the same subject.

While the 1963 released 'Yeh Rastay Hain Pyaar Ke' starred Sunil Dutt, Leena Naidu and Ashok Kumar, 'Achanak' was released a decade later and had Vinod Khanna and Lily Chakravarty portraying the lead roles.

Akshay credited scriptwriter Vipul K Rawal for helping him out with the character of the Naval officer.

“Since the scriptwriter was himself a Naval Officer, it did help us as he was present throughout, from filming the songs to selection of costumes,” he said.

Speaking about his character in the movie, Akshay said that he did not have to work hard for the character he played in the film and said that his friend and the director (Tinu Suresh Desai) of the movie helped him out.

“I just played the character in the film. My best friend and my manager who is also a Parsi helped me a lot in playing this role," he said, while adding, " It was never tough to play the character of Rustom because of my director, who was busy in researching this character for two years.”

Akshay also added that he did not choose the script consciously and it just happened.

"It just happened to me. I like this subject,” he said.

Another lead actor Ileana D'Cruz, who plays his love interest, shared her experience of working with Akshay Kumar.

Ileana said: “It is such an intense film and I think Akshay is the best of actors I could have worked with. He is an incredible supporter.”

The Barfi girl said that it is an amazing experience for her to come back to Kolkata from where she had started her Bollywood career.

Esha Gupta, who is portraying a negative character  in the film, spoke about her character who is stubborn and a very strong headed woman.

“My character has shades of grey,” she added.

Esha said that she always wanted to work for Neeraj Pandey and the type of character she portrays in Rustom is “like a milestone.”

Directed by debutant Tinu Suresh Desai, Rustom is slated to release on August 12.

(Reporting by Souvik Ghosh, Images by Avishek Mitra)