Whilst promoting his new film ‘Naam Shabana’, Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar expressed his upset over women feeling as if they have to learn martial arts in order to feel safe.
He said; “Honestly, I don’t think women should learn martial arts. I want them to enjoy and roam around freely, but sadly that’s not the case. But aaj zamana waisa hai ki there is no other option but you have to learn martial arts. It’s a sad thing that they have to learn to defend themselves.”
‘Naam Shabana’ is scheduled for release at the end of March. The film is a prequel of the 2015 film ‘Baby’ and is described as an ‘Indian action spy thriller.’
Akshay hopes that the film will empower women and encourage them to learn self-defence.
The actor is well-known for his involvement in martial arts, and last year was in the process of launching over 100 training centres across India.
The training centres offer free training programmes for women that teach them key defence moves that could help deter an attacker. The actor went on to say; “Lots of women come to train at my training centre. So far in Mumbai, we have trained around 18000 women. I want more and more women to learn, and learn how to defend themselves.”
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