Akshay Kumar: A guy tried to molest one of the girls trained from my school

In mid-day's exclusive interview series, Sit With Hitlist, Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar shares an inspiring story of how a girl from his self-defense academy protected herself from a man who was trying to molest her

In 2014, Bollywood's action titan Akshay Kumar, along with Yuva Sena head Aditya Thackeray, started a school in Mumbai to train women in self-defense. The aim behind Akshay Kumar's initiative was to give back to the society. "We are here to give something to the society. There is no monetary gain from it. I am doing it because I have earned a lot in life due to martial arts and it is my way to give back (to the society)," the actor, who is trained in martial arts and has a black belt in taekwondo, had told reporters back then.

In mid-day's exclusive conversation series, Sit With Hitlist, Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar shares an inspiring story of how a girl from his self-defense academy beat up a man who was trying to molest her and stresses on the importance of women learning to protect themselves

Now, three years since the launch of the academy, 21,000 girls have graduated from Akshay Kumar's school in Andheri. While speaking about it during mid-day's exclusive conversation series, Sit With Hitlist, Akshay Kumar shared what happened when a man tried to molest a girl who had been trained from his school. Akshay Kumar said, "Well, there was a recent case as well. A guy tried to molest one of the girls trained from my school. Forget resisting the molestation, she was so powerful that she beat him black and blue. He is in jail now. It's not about learning martial arts. Women have to understand that they should be able to combat blows."

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Elaborating further on the importance of self-defense, Akshay Kumar told mid-day, "What happens when someone holds a girl's hands, she freezes. She can't believe that someone has caught her like this [inappropriately]. She doesn't scream, move or shriek. That is when a man takes advantage of her. I am trying to teach them how to be more confident in real life, besides being able to get out of an unfortunate situation. I teach them that they have to scream. I never have them come to the school in track pants. If people go to work in saree, they should come to learn in a saree. When someone attacks, you won't say, "Ruko track pant pehen ke aane do [Wait, let me wear my track pants]." They practice in heels, shoes everything. We have all kinds of students - from CEOs, to maids - training, free of cost. They come, enjoy the classes, and win medals. My farewell gift to them is a keychain with a whistle on it. When a girl whistles, the guy withdraws, and gets shocked. It scares him. It's an Israeli tactic."

Also read: Akshay Kumar: Twinkle Khanna threw script of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, called it sh*t

Read the in-depth 'Sit With Hitlist' interview of Akshay Kumar with mid-day, where the 'Airlift' actor also spoke about losing out on Aamir Khan's film 'Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar' (1993), his first pay-cheque, his audition days and many other unknown fascinating facets from his life before hitting stardom.

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