Akshay Kumar plays himself, a superstar in 'The Shaukeens'

In his next, The Shaukeens, which is a remake of the 1982 Basu Chatterjee classic Shaukeen, Akshay Kumar does not reprise Mithun Chakraborty's role from the original but he plays himself.

In fact, Akshay plays an arrogant version, who throws off the camera from a fan's hand, saying, 'Ask me ma'am, before you take a photograph'. There are few other negative traits to his character, for instance, he is shown drinking 'coconut water' but only after adding some alcohol in it.

Akshay, who is a teetotaler in real life, jokes, "I know many actors who say that they are drinking coconut water or juice but they are actually drinking liquor." He further adds, "I am playing my own self just that we have put a negative track to my character. I am shown drinking alcohol which I don't in real life. We wanted to add some colour to my character and I had fun playing the part."

While the original featured Ashok Kumar, Utpal Dutt and A K Hangal as three lecherous old men, The Shaukeens has Anupam Kher, Annu Kapoor and Piyush Mishra, who get together for some fun and frolic in Mauritius. The film that has Lisa Haydon in the female lead, is directed by Abhishek Sharma of Tere Bin Laden fame.