02 November,2010 08:59 AM IST | | Upala KBR
Wants to take his Karate championship global
Thrilled with the response to his all-India karate championships in the last two years, Akshay Kumar now plans to make it an international activity. He wants children fromu00a0 other Asian nations to participate.
The championship hosted by the actor is very popular and children of all ages participate in it. The actor feels that itu00a0 should no longer be restricted just to India.
More exposure
Says an insider, "The South Asian countries are far ahead of us in martial arts and Akki feels fighting them, and interacting with them will benefit those learning the art here. He wants the children here to have exposure to the best karate fighters and teachers.
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He wants children to learn martial arts with the same passion and dedication as children in other South Asian countries do. Like a boy from a every rural family is sent to the armed forces to become a soldier, he hopes that a child from every family will be enrolled in karate."
The Khiladi admits, "Yes. Taking the championships to an international level is on the cards. The response we have received over the last few years has been phenomenal. We have received over 5300 applications in the last 15 days. I am confident we will see success even with an international karate championship.
India has some extreme talent and I'm doing all I can to expose it. I couldn't be more pleased with every single one of them.
All the adults and children take this competition very seriously every opponent was there to win there are guys and girls who can seriously kick ass.... I have already prepared them for the fact that next year we are making my tournament international and that countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, will be competing with India's finest karate champions. I'm already looking forward to next year! Karate will one day be our national sport or at least in our top two."
Apart from inviting international karate students, Akki is also planning to host the international championship at a foreign city with a tie-up with the host country. However AK maintains, "Right now, I want to host the championships only in India and I want to show the world what a great host India is."
