‘Akshay Kumar admitted the tide has turned against him, rejected my film offer’: Mukesh Khanna shares details of private meeting

Actor Mukesh Khanna has taken pot-shots at several major stars over the years; he recently earned a strongly-worded reply from Sonakshi Sinha, whose upbringing he criticised in a new interview. In the same interview, he also criticised Ranveer Singh, Tiger Shroff, Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn, and several other actors, for a variety of reasons. Among them was Akshay Kumar, whom he accused of laziness. He said that he met Akshay recently and took the opportunity to give him some professional advice; Khanna also claimed that he offered a project to Akshay, who admitted that the stars aren’t shining on him currently.

Akshay is going through a particularly difficult period professionally, having delivered over half-a-dozen flops in the post-pandemic era. In 2024 alone, he has starred in the big-budget bombs Bade Miyan Chote Miyan and Sarfira. Khanna told Siddharth Kannan in an interview that Akshay should return to rugged action roles, as he’s most suited to them. He said, “It was his fault as an actor that he couldn’t do justice to the film Samrat Prithviraj. Even the director admitted in an interview with me that they cut corners. I suggested to Akshay that he should choose roles that suit his image. He should play fighters on screen.”

Also read – ‘Ranveer Singh told me privately that he was duped into doing nude photoshoot, but backtracked in public’: Mukesh Khanna

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He said that he has worked with Akshay in six films, and understands his strengths as an actor. “He’s one of our most athletic performers. He’s a very dedicated actor. In fact, I wanted to sign him for a film, so I went to meet him. I wanted to make the film myself. I met him in his van at Mehboob Studios recently. I narrated the story to him, and he ultimately didn’t agree to it. I complimented him, but he said, ‘No, sir, I’m not… Kismat nahi…’ I told him that he’s at least being more choosy about his projects; earlier, he’d say yes to everything.”

Khanna said that he told Akshay to play ‘fighters’ on screen. “In some film, somebody insulted him, and he looked on meekly. That’s not what the audience wants to see. This was my only suggestion to him as a fellow actor. We didn’t speak again,” Khanna said. In an interview with Galatta Plus earlier this year, Akshay spoke about the criticism that he receives for doing too many films. “A lot of people have problems as to why am I doing four films a year. I don’t understand this. For the first time in my life, I have heard somebody saying, ‘Why are you working so much? Is this a bad thing? I do four films a year and people have a problem with that,” he said.