Twinkle is my lucky charm: Akshay Kumar

The actor, who portrays a man unlucky in love in his upcoming film 'Housefull, said he was delivering flops after flops but meeting Twinkle changed his luck forever. "I wasn't having that great a time in Bollywood before the 'Lakshmi' of my life entered my house. Before meeting her I had 14 flops but things started looking up after the Lady Luck smiled at me," said Akshay, who married Twinkle, daughter of Bollywood veterans Rajesh Khanna and Dimple Kapadia, in 2001.

The 42-year-old actor was in the city to promote the film along with director Sajid Khan and co-stars Deepika Padukone, Jiah Khan, Riteish Deshmukh and Arjun Rampal. When asked to pick his 'Lakshmi' in 'Housefull', which will feature Bollywood beauties Deepika Padukone, Lara Datta and Jiah Khan, Akshay chose to play safe stating all three actresses in the movie were his 'Lakshmis' and that he "shared a great chemistry with all three.

'Housefull' is the story of Aarush, played by Akshay, who believes that his bad luck can vanish only when he finds true love. Aarush ends up having a roller-coaster ride in his journey of discovering true love. Padukone and Jiah had some tough time shooting the movie, which releases on April 30, as they had to deal with pranksters like Akshay and Riteish.

"It was madness on the set!" said Padukone. "In addition to Sajid's riot we had to deal with two serial pranksters on the set- Akshay and Riteish- who constantly had cast and crew in splits at our expense." Jiah, last seen in Aamir Khan starrer 'Ghajini', said once Riteish and Akshay stuffed her bag with some cutlery at an expensive hotel and she was accused of stealing. "The worst part was they had convinced even the waiter to be a part of the prank and I ended up looking silly!," said Jiah. If the pretty lasses had to deal with the pranksters, for Riteish it was about competing with macho guys like Akshay and Arjun.

"Working out was difficult. Both Akshay and Arjun have great physiques and I had to work extra hard to match up to them, it was Arjun who helped me out," said Riteish who is renowned for his comedy flicks like 'Masti' and 'Heyy Babyy'. "Arjun's role was the most difficult. His character is serious and the entire movie revolves around him. To keep a straight face in the midst of this madness is no easy task," Akshay quipped about his co-star.