Akshay injures eardrum shooting for Housefull

Akshay Kumar hurt himself on Wednesday night while shooting for Sajid Nadiadwala's Housefull at the Goregaon Sports Complex. The actor injured his right eardrum and it started bleeding but he insisted on finishing the day's work. Says a source present on the sets, "Akshay was shooting an underwater sequence in a swimming pool. He dived in to the deep-end of the pool quickly, without equalising pressure and in the process, hurt his right eardrum. But he continued shooting despite being in extreme pain. Only after the shoot got over did he allow Sajid Nadiadwala to take him to the Kokilaben Ambani hospital in Andheri in the early hours of the morning.

After the doctors treated him for his injury they strictly advised him to rest it out at home for the next 10 days and to cancel all shoots. Akshay was to leave tonight for the shoot of a film but has now postponed all work commitments." Director Sajid Khan confirms, "When you get into seven-feet-deep water, you have to close your nose and go into the water. Akshay dove in too quickly without doing so, and the water rushed into his eardrums and the pressure affected his right eardrum. All of us could see Akshay in great pain so I kept telling him we could pack up; he refused. Finally, when the shooting ended that night, Nadiadwala took him to the hospital. By then Akshay was in too much pain. At the hospital, they found a slight internal injury to his eardrum and advised him rest."

Sajid is all praise for Akshay. "He's a thorough professional! I have seen him in extreme pain or shivering from fever but he doesn't utter a word but continues shooting. In Italy, while shooting for Housefull, we had to shoot in a hotel on the edge of a cliff, which had eight floors. While foreign stuntsmen would think twice and use cables and other things to move from the balcony of one floor we would see a cool-as-a-cucumber Akshay jumping with only cables to different balconies. I have never seen any actor perform as scary stunts as him. I used to get scared but now I have stopped. He knows what he's doing and enjoys performing high-voltage stunts."