When Akshay Kumar appeared on the cover of India’s first gay magazine, said he’d ‘seen it all’ in Thailand but won’t say if he’d ‘done it all’

In 1995, Akshay Kumar appeared on the cover of Bombay Dost, India's first officially registered gay magazine. He spoke about his time in Thailand, and said that he had 'seen it all'.

Akshay Kumar last starred in the film Selfiee.

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Akshay Kumar has embraced various identities in his long and successful career as a movie star. He has been an action hero and a saviour, a crackling comedian and a heartthrob. But in the 1990s, he attempted to appeal to his gay fans when he appeared on the cover of Bombay Dost, the country’s first registered gay magazine.

In a 1995 interview with Bombay Dost, Akshay, according to Mid-day, spoke about his heterosexuality, but also recalled his time in Thailand. “I was brought up in Thailand during my impressionable years. I’ve seen it all and I’m not telling you whether I’ve done it all,” he said coyly. The edition with the Akshay interview was subtitled Akshay on Gays, according to The Print, and featured a picture of the actor drenched in water and wearing a nose ring.

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Bombay Dost was launched in 1990, and the Akshay interview happened a year after he starred in the film Main Khiladi Tu Anadi. Reviewing the film for the magazine, the editor Ashok Row Kavi wrote, “The dance sequences emphasise male eroticism, in which Akshay and Saif ‘handle each other’ rather than the scores of women around.” This seemingly annoyed Saif so much that he slapped the writer, according to an Indian Express article.

A screenshot of the Reddit post about Akshay Kumar’s Bombay Dost cover.

A picture of Akshay’s cover for Bombay Dost was recently shared on Reddit, sparking a discussion among fans in the comments section. “He looked really good with the nosering. I think this is one of my favorite photshoots,” one person wrote. “Akshay has always been a gay icon and has never shied from even calling himself as a “gay icon”. He is the first superstar who played a gay man without caricaturising (Dishoom 2016) and a Transgender (Laxmi),” another person commented.

Akshay had a busy 2022, having starred in five films. Four of them were released in theatres to disappointing results, while the sole streaming release received poor reviews. This year, the actor starred in yet another theatrical flop, Selfiee.

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