Akshay Kumar shares experience of shooting amid COVID, says 'couldn’t hug Balki sir'

Akshay Kumar recently became the first actor to shoot amidst Coronavirus lockdown with director R. Balki for an awareness campaign. In a webinar with Nashik Police Commissioner, Vishwas Nangare Patil, Kumar revealed that he felt 'weird' to shoot with half the crew members. Though excited to face the camera after a long time, Akshay Kumar felt 'different' to meet people maintaining distance.

He said, "It felt different to meet and greet people maintaining distance because normally we hug and shake hands. I couldn’t hug Balki sir." Akshay also shared how the crew followed the guidelines by the government — sanitised everything, wore masks, checked body temperature, social distancing, face shields — Kumar said 'it felt like we were preparing to go to war'.

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“We will be going back to work slowly, but following all the rules and regulations to stay safe. We have to get back to work. We can’t be scared. If we are scared, we will lose our battle. We have to go ahead and we have to fight it," Akshay concluded.

Our battle with #COVID19 is not over, but we will not be afraid of the virus. We will take all precautions and we are going to move on with our lives

⁦@akshaykumar⁩ @MoHFW_INDIA #IndiaFightsCorona #BreakTheStigma pic.twitter.com/EKxcwwhVb3

— PIB India (@PIB_India) June 2, 2020

Balki said the advertisement was for the Health Ministry and the team took all the necessary precautions, including wearing masks and working with minimal crew. "This is an ad for the health ministry featuring Akshay Kumar about the post lockdown responsibilities of each one of us. We need to get back to work but ensure our safety and those of others. So at our shoot, we did the same.

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"Like getting back to work with social distancing, sanitised outdoor set, disinfectant screen, masks. We got used to it in a few minutes. There was minimal crew and very strict protocols," Balki told PTI. The director, who has collaborated with Akshay in films like "Padman" and "Mission Mangal", said the crew realised the shooting can be done "quite easily" following all the guidelines.

(with PTI inputs)