40 minutes agoAuthor: Ashish Tiwari/Virendra Mishra
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Despite the ups and downs and changing circumstances in Bollywood, Akshay Khanna always remained focused on his acting.
Despite facing personal challenges like baldness at a young age and many ups and downs in his career, Akshaye Khanna never lost faith in himself. His dream of becoming a superstar may not have been fully realized, but he definitely created a distinct and strong identity in the industry on the basis of his strong acting.
In the 90s, he proved his talent with films like ‘Border’ and ‘Taal’ and made a place in the hearts of the audience.
Akshaye Khanna always gave importance to his characters and content more than glamour, which is why his career may not have been like that of a traditional superstar, but his acting was always appreciated. By choosing different types of roles, he proved that he can adapt himself to every character.
Recently, his brilliant performance in the film ‘Dhurandhar’ once again showed that even today he is no less than anyone in terms of acting. His depth, screen presence and ability to completely immerse himself in the character make him special.
Akshaye Khanna is one of those select actors who are rarely seen, but whenever they come on screen, they leave their mark and prove that the real players are those who keep proving themselves with time.
In today’s success story, let us know some more things related to Akshay Khanna’s career and personal life.
Akshaye Khanna was born on 28 March 1975 in Mumbai.
Akshay’s journey from ‘Himalaya Putra’ to ‘Taal’
Akshaye Khanna officially started his career in 1997 with the film ‘Himalaya Putra’, which was produced by his father Vinod Khanna. The film did not create much buzz at the box office, but during this period, his name remained in the list of those emerging young actors, whom the stars of the previous generation saw not as their children, but on the basis of their acting ability.
‘Border’, released in the same year, once again proved that Akshaye Khanna is not just a star kid but an actor who has brought a different style and intensity. J.P. Dutta’s delivery in this multi-starrer film not only caught the attention of critics, but the film also became an all-time blockbuster of his career.
In 1999, Subhash Ghai’s film ‘Taal’ took his look, style and emotional depth to new heights. The audience liked his romantic character in the film very much. It is still counted among his memorable romantic films.
Akshay Khanna worked with Aishwarya Rai in ‘Taal’ and ‘Aa Ab Laut Chalen’.
Career struggling with flop films
Despite a successful start, the beginning of the 2000s was challenging for Akshaye Khanna. Despite working in films like ‘Aa Ab Laut Chalen’, he could not give consecutive hit films. Many of his films did not perform as expected at the box office, making his career unstable.
During this period, he tried to play different types of characters, but due to lack of consistently successful films, he lagged behind in the race of top stars.
Baldness and failure broke self-confidence
The most difficult phase of Akshaye Khanna’s career was when he had to face baldness at an early age. Akshay Khanna had said this in an interview given to Mid-Day.
This started happening to me at a very young age. At that time I felt as if a pianist’s hand had been cut off. It is the same for an actor, because your looks matter a lot.
When you accept this truth, it bothers you less. But the experience that comes before that is very difficult. Like you wake up in the morning, look at the newspaper and realize that I can’t see anything clearly, I can’t read it.
I need glasses. You wonder what happened suddenly, why are my eyes not working? Suppose you are a sportsman, cricketer or footballer and you come to know that you will have knee surgery. This is heartbreaking because it takes away one or two years of your career. Premature balding was something like that for me.
‘Dil Chahta Hai’ became the turning point of his career
Akshaye Khanna’s biggest strength has always been his acting ability. The 2001 film ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ proved to be the turning point of his career. His restrained and deep acting as ‘Sid’ in the film won the hearts of both the audience and critics.
Akshaye Khanna was initially given the role of Akash in ‘Dil Chahta Hai’, but later this role was given to Aamir Khan.
Apart from this, Akshay demonstrated his versatility in films like ‘Humraaz’, ‘Hungama’ and ‘Deewangi’. These films established him as a versatile actor, although commercially he could not string together superhit films, and he did not attain superstar status in Bollywood. Akshay Khanna himself has had a very clear and practical view on this.
Big and cult films are needed to become a superstar
Akshay says- Becoming a superstar of an artist does not depend only on his acting or hard work, but it is very important to get the right film at the right time. According to him, films make you a superstar. Unless you have big and cult films like ‘Gadar: Ek Prem Katha’, ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ and ‘Hum Aapke Hain Koun’, it is difficult to reach that level.
Becoming a superstar is not in your hands
Akshay also admitted that an artiste has very limited things in his hands. He can only work with full honesty and hard work from his side, but who gets which film largely depends on luck and opportunity. He said- You can only try. If you have such films in your destiny, then you will get them, otherwise not.
Akshay Khanna does not hold any bitterness regarding his career. He believes that he has tried to give his best in whatever work he has got and he hopes to do better work in future too. He also indicated that he is more mature now and wants to present himself to the audience with stronger characters in the future.
Akshay Khanna did not take advantage of being a star kid.
‘Taare Zameen Par’ was written by Amol Gupte for Akshay Khanna.
Akshay Khanna was going to work in the film ‘Taare Zameen Par’. But the film ultimately went to Aamir Khan. During a conversation with Mid-Day, Akshay Khanna had told that the film’s writer-director Amol Gupte tried to narrate the script to him, but Aamir heard it first and decided to do the film.
Akshay Khanna told that for ‘Taare Zameen Par’ writer Amol Gupte wanted him to do a film with him.
He contacted Aamir because he was Aamir’s friend. Said, “I really want to narrate this story to Akshay. I don’t know him, but you have just worked with him in ‘Dil Chahta Hai’. Can you tell him on the phone that I want to narrate him a script?”
Aamir told him that I cannot recommend a script until I hear it myself. So first tell it to me and if I like it then I will tell Akshay. Aamir liked this script so much that he himself did the film.
‘Taare Zameen Par’ was released in 2007 and was a superhit at the box office. Aamir himself took charge of the direction and production of the film and also played the lead role. The film offered a new perspective on children’s education, their imagination, and parent-child relationships.
Akshay told that he did not regret leaving this opportunity. He said that such opportunities keep coming and going in Bollywood and sometimes things go out of our hands.
Long gap and distance from industry
Akshay Khanna has been one of those actors who likes to stay away from the limelight. There were many long gaps in his career. There even came a time when he stayed away from films for about 5-6 years. There was discussion in the industry regarding such breaks that he likes to work in his own way.
Akshay Khanna says- I myself had distanced myself from films for some time. At that time perhaps I felt that it would be better to take a break, but later I understood that if you stop in the industry, people assume that you are no longer working. Then it is not easy to return. When I came back, I had trouble getting work.
Making a film is also a long process. Getting a good script, waiting for the right project, all this takes time. So even though I want to work more, things happen in their own time.
Strong comeback and new heights
After a long break, Akshay Khanna made a spectacular comeback in 2017 with the film ‘Mom’, in which his negative character was highly appreciated. After this, he proved his acting prowess in films like ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’ and ‘Section 375’.
After this the strongest phase of his career began. His character of a strict and influential police officer in ‘Drishyam 2’ was greatly liked by the audience. He was highly praised for his role of Aurangzeb in the film ‘Chhaava’. Akshay’s one-liners, expressions and prosthetic makeup in the film made his role memorable.
Even today, Akshay Khanna has proved himself as a real player of acting through the film Dhurandhar.
At the same time, ‘Dhurandhar’ took Akshay Khanna’s career to new heights. The depth with which he played the character of gangster Rehman Dacoit in this film once again brought him into the center of discussion. This film is counted among the biggest successes of his career and received tremendous appreciation from the audience as well as critics.
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Read last week’s success story…
Hit films were made by stealing the scripts written by Aditya Dhar: Many projects were closed before shooting, he became a big star of Bollywood after defeating dyslexia.
Despite serious illness like dyslexia, weakness in studies and repeatedly broken dreams, Aditya Dhar did not give up. After coming to Mumbai he struggled for a long time. Sometimes scripts were stolen, and sometimes films were stopped just before shooting. Many times it seemed that the journey was over, but every time he controlled himself and tried one more time.Read the full news..
