Akshay Kumar cleans toilet with Union minister in Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh [PHOTOS]

Actor Akshay Kumar has donned a number of mantles over the years — both in reel and real life. Rarely perhaps has he descended to such lows — literally, and in a good way — to give back to society as well as he did while promoting his upcoming film Toilet – Ek Prem Katha, which is slated for release on August 11.

The actor on Saturday cleaned a toilet along with Union Drinking Water and Sanitation Minister Narendra Singh Tomar at the Reghwan village in Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh. It was both an attempt to spread awareness about household sanitation as well as to promote Akshay Kumar's upcoming film, where he stars opposite Bhumi Pednekar. 

The toilet-cleaning exercise

According to a government statement, Akshay Kumar and Tomar "personally led a team of senior officers of state and Central government, to a household in the village that has adopted a twin pit toilet model in their toilet, and proceeded to empty the filled pit of the toilet and held up the compost found in the toilet in their hands to demonstrate that the exercise is perfectly safe and that there should be no stigma attached to it."

Both Tomar and Akshay spoke on the issue of household sanitation. The government statement said Akshay "spoke about the myths, biases and stigma against handling of decomposed human waste that continue to pervade most rural communities."

It added: "He said that such safe toilet technologies must be adopted and made a plea to all citizens of India to stand up against discrimination and to take pride in installing, maintaining and cleaning their own household toilets for the health and dignity of their families."

Also read: Akshay Kumar to play Gulshan Kumar in his next Mogul; Padman, 2.0 and other upcoming movies of the actor [PHOTO]

Here are some photos from the event: 

Akshay's upcoming films 

Besides Toilet – ek Prem Katha, Akshay Kumar has a number of other films in his kitty. Possibly the biggest of them is 2.0 with Rajinikanth, where he plays the antagonist and dons heavy prosthetic make-up. 2.0 is the sequel to the 2010 film Endhiran (Enthiran), which was dubbed and released in Hindi as Robot.

Akshay will also be seen playing Gulshan Kumar in a biopic on the T-Series founder, and in the title role of Padman, which is about Arunachalam Muruganantham — the man who brought low-cost sanitary napkins for women in India.