‘Man of mystery’ Akshaye Khanna was the ‘school crush, most popular senior’, recalls his schoolmate: ‘He was the quiet storm’

Akshaye Khanna finished his schooling from Lawrence School, Lovedale in Ooty, where he was known as the “most popular” senior, not because he was outgoing, but precisely because he wasn’t. His former schoolmate, now politician Saira Shah Halim, recently took to Instagram to share a heartfelt note about Khanna, calling him “Lawrence School Lovedale Ooty’s original Heartbreak Kid.”

 

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“Perhaps I haven’t shared this before,” she wrote, “but Akshaye Khanna was a couple of years senior to us at Lawrence School Lovedale, where I was a boarder along with my brother, Major Mohammed Ali Shah.” She recalled the buzz on campus when news broke that Vinod Khanna’s son was joining Class 11. “We were intrigued about who or what he looked like,” she added.

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“For the next two years, we saw him every day—passing us by, walking up and down the campus, bumping into him outside the tuck shop—and boy, he was the school crush. Period.” Halim described Akshaye as anything but loud or flashy. “He wasn’t the boisterous captain of the football team; he was the quiet storm. Reticent, a brooder—the only drama he caused was in the hearts of his schoolmates.” She went on to call him a “man of mystery”, someone who never attended school socials, was never part of large groups, and was content quietly sipping tea on the lawns or taking solitary walks around the campus. “Despite never being a ‘ladies’ man’ in the traditional sense, he was the most popular senior on campus,” she wrote.

Akshaye was often visited by his parents. “His dad, Vinod Khanna, and stepmother visited him often, I recall,” Halim noted. Looking back, she said it was no surprise that he eventually joined films. “Some films clicked, some didn’t—but through it all, one thing remained static: he stayed low-key and mysterious, just the way he is now.” She concluded by expressing happiness at seeing her senior finally get his due.

There’s little doubt that 2025 has belonged to Akshaye Khanna. He first stunned audiences by overshadowing Vicky Kaushal in Chhaava as Aurangzeb, and now, in Dhurandhar, his character Rehman Dakait has managed to dominate the screen despite sharing space with Ranveer Singh, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Rampal, Rakesh Bedi, and R Madhavan.

Released on December 5, Dhurandhar opened to Rs 28 crore. Within eight days, the film went on to earn an impressive Rs 240 crore at the Indian box office, further cementing Akshaye Khanna’s long-overdue moment in the spotlight.