‘Mat Karna’: Twinkle Khanna reveals Akshay Kumar’s ‘only’ contribution to her writing

Khanna was quick to explain that her work is not about provoking outrage. Instead, she sees writing as a way to gently push readers to think deeper about what they already see but may overlook.

“My job is to make people reflect on the things that are visible. But our own conditioning blinds us to those factors. It might make people uncomfortable and they might call it offensive… (But) I think about how I will unravel the layers of conditioning not just around them but also around me because I also find my way through life as I write.”

Khanna also spoke about her her shift from acting to writing. “It is what I was able to give that medium, and books have always been my life and actually so has cinema,” she said.

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Love for language and a meomory with Rajesh Khanna

Her love for language has roots in her childhood, particularly a memory involving her father, Rajesh Khanna. “It comes a little bit from perhaps, my father (late veteran actor Rajesh Khanna), because I have a distinct memory when I was very young and I said, ‘Will you pick me up from school? And he said, “Are you a pickup? I will fetch you from school. That kind of just set my parameters of what language can do. And I grew up in a family of readers. My sister (Rinkle Khanna) reads more than I do,”

Khanna admitted that she read more in her younger years and still carries a sense of unfinished business. “Just keep doing what you’re doing and finish the book you started when you were 18. I’m 52, and that one book I haven’t been able to finish yet,” she said, reflecting on what she would tell her younger self.

Book recommendations by Twinkle

When asked about her reading recommendations, she listed a wide range of authors and titles. “I would say Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove is a book that I love. Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things is something that I have read several times and I continue to read it. Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny: Haruki Murakami’s Men Without Women; Octavia E Butler writes fantastic feminist science fiction: anything by Ursula Le Guin; short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri…. F Scott Fitzgerald, PG Wodehouse… My god! I mean, I am standing in front of my bookshelf, so tell me when to stop!”

Khanna is the author of several books, including Mrs Funnybones, Mrs Funnybones Returns, The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad, Pyjamas Are Forgiving and Welcome to Paradise.

Akshay Kumar and Twinkle Khanna tied the knot on January 17, 2001. The couple have two children – a son, Aarav Bhatia (born in 2002), and a daughter, Nitara Kumar (born in 2012).