Akshay Kumar at Toronto film fest

Akshay Kumar had a grand premiere and party to celebrate his new movie at TIFF.

Akshay Kumar's production venture Breakaway aka Speedy Singhs, had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in a grand fashion.

A cross-cultural film, it is based on ice hockey, one of the national sports of Canada. The key highlight of the event was the presence of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who walked the red carpet along with Akshay Kumar and the cast of the film.

A dhol band from Punjab was a core component of the group. They presented some traditional and dynamic numbers. There was additional fanfare with horses, elephants and majestic antique cars driving the cast members to the venue, which included Russell Peters, Camilla Belle and Vinay Virmani.

The Punjabi tadka did not end there. Dance troupes from India displayed their talent at
the premiere of the film. Speedy Singhs is slotted to release on September 23 in India.

Canadian PM brings cake for Akki
It was also Akshay's 44th birthday on the day, and he cut a cake which was specially flown in from Ottawa by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's team. Says a source, "Akshay's birthday cake was baked at the prime minister's residence at 24 Sussex Drive. The cake, in the shape of a movie reel and popcorn bucket, was flown in the PM's aircraft and enjoyed by a VIP celebrity guestlist."

After the screening, Akki's birthday was celebrated at one of the city's most famous rooftop night clubs, Muzik. "There was an intimate dinner for about 20 people, with actor Russell Peters, the PM and his wife, Vinay Virmani and his father Ajay Virmani. After the dinner, there was a party attended by 150 people, including the band RDB, South Asian artists Jassie Sindhu, Bohemia, H-Dhami, Veronica and Breakaway director Robert Lieberman with his wife and son. Rapper Ludacris specially performed at Akshay's birthday dinner. Akki and Ludacris even rapped a song together.

Akshay wore a black suit with a white shirt, while wife Twinkle wore a draped green dress.