Akshay Kumar pleased to see the surging trend of sports movies

Actor Akshay Kumar is happy that sports films are being made in Bollywood and it is not only cricket that has caught everyone's attention but other games are also in focus. The trend of centring movies around wrestling and boxing seems to be catching up in Bollywood as Salman Khan is doing Sultan where he plays the role of a wrestler and Aamir Khan too be will be seen as a wrestler in Dangal.

In the upcoming film Brothers, Akshay will be seen in the boxing ring. "I think it is very good that this trend is happening. It is good that sports is seen as a great subject in Bollywood and because of that, it's not only cricket but other sports as well like kabaddi, hockey are coming on-screen through films and that is good,"

Akshay said in an interview here. "I hope martial art also comes in the forefront. I wouldn't be surprised if one day, like IPL, mix martial art tournament comes in," he said. Starring Akshay and Siddharth Malhotra as Brothers - the film is an upcoming action-drama, based on mixed martial arts. Directed by Karan Malhotra, Brothers is an official remake of the 2011 Hollywood film Warrior and is set to release on August 14. The film is pertinent to Akshay's life as he loves action and is trained in martial arts.

Related read: Akshay and Sidharth's Shopkeeper-Chhutki version is the most hilarious thing you'll watch today!

"Martial art has always been my first love and I always call myself a stunt-man first and then an actor. This has been a comfortable space, I have enjoyed myself working on this film. I am glad that people have started making films on martial art and self-defence which is actually the need of the hour," Akshay said. "I am happy that somebody is making a film on martial art. We both Siddharth and I are mixed martial art students and in the movie it so happens that we are brothers and we hate each other and come in the ring," he said.

The Holiday star thinks the government must make martial art a compulsory subject in schools. Citing an example, he says, "Like how it happens in Singapore, there the crime rate is 0.03%, it is because everybody out there have to do three years self-defence training. "I would always say to the government to make martial art compulsory for every student in school," he said.

For Brothers, Akshay trained for four months and it was tough. "The most important thing in this film was not about me kicking or punching, it was more about conditioning. All the punches that you will see are 60% real. We have to hit each other as that is what we have been taught. For four to five months we had to learn conditioning of body."

Akshay, 47, said he got along well with Siddharth on the sets as there are many similarities between them. "He is great to work with, he reminds me quite a lot of me. He is from Delhi, his father is from army, he is tall, a Punjabi, he is into fitness, he gets up early, sleeps early - a lot of similarities between us," he said.