Arjun Kapoor shared this picture with his sister Alka. (courtesy: akshaykumar)

Mumbai:

Akshay Kumar, with typically Akshay Kumar timing, has a film called Raksha Bandhan out on the festival of Raksha Bandhan. Like the character he plays in the film, Akshay is an older brother to a sister for real as well. Speaking to NDTV, the 54-year-old actor recalled his own memories of the day his sister Alka was born – a day, he said, he remembers better than any other. “The biggest memory was when she was born…my dad came to pick me up, ‘aaja your sister has come,'” Akshay told NDTV, recounting the journey to the nursing home past a cinema.

When he saw his sister, his mother told Akshay that she was the goddess of their home. “The first time I saw my sister, my mother told me ‘ghar ki devi hain yeh,'” Akshay said, adding, “I remember that clearer than any other day in my life.”

Akshay Kumar’s reel alter ego in Raksha Bandhan puts his sisters’ happiness ahead of his own – as Lala Kedarnath, he refuses to marry his childhood sweetheart, played by Bhumi Pednekar, until he has arranged marriages for his four younger sisters. This turns out to be easier said than done with financial dire straits playing spoilsport. Like many of Akshay Kumar’s films, Raksha Bandhan is a comic film about a serious subject.

Raksha Bandhan releases on the same day as Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha. “It’s a big week and we have about three to four holidays. Me and Aamir pray that both the films run,” Akshay told NDTV about the box office clash.

Raksha Bandhan reunites Akshay Kumar with his Atrangi Re director Aanand L Rai; his screen sisters are played by Sadia Khateeb, Sahejmeen Kaur, Smrithi Srikanth and Deepika Khanna.