06 June,2017 09:00 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar became a household name with the film 'Khiladi', but a lesser known fact is that he was not the original choice for the role.
Akshay Kumar in the poster of 'Khiladi'
Akshay Kumar, Ayesha Jhulka, Deepak Tijori and Sabeehaa in the poster of Khiladi. Pic/YouTube
Recently Akshay Kumar fans celebrated 25 years of his film 'Khiladi', a murder mystery-thriller which made him into a household name and eventually helped him gain popularity as 'The Khiladi Kumar' of Bollywood. His fans trended the hashtag #25YearsOfKhiladi on Twitter.
Akki went on to do various films styled with the word Khiladi, like - 'Sabse Bada Khiladi', 'Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi', 'International Khiladi', 'Mr And Mrs Khiladi', 'Khiladi 420', 'Main Khiladi Tu Anari' and 'Khiladi 786'.
'Khiladi' released in 1992 and also starred Ayesha Jhulka, Deepak Tijori, Sabeeha, Prem Chopra, Anant Mahadevan, Johnny Lever and Shakti Kapoor. However, it is a lesser known fact that Akshay Kumar was not the original choice for the Abbas-Mustan directorial.
At a recently held media interaction for the film 'Tubelight', Salman Khan revealed to the media that the makers had earlier approached his brother Arbaaz Khan for the film, which he turned down and eventually fell in the lap of Akshay Kumar. In fact, Salman revealed that even 'Dhadkan', the romantic drama which saw a different side of Akshay Kumar was earlier offered to Arbaaz! So this means, Arbaaz turned down two films which became blockbusters and definitely cemented Akshay's position in Bollywood.
Arbaaz Khan
Well, Akshay Kumar should definitely thank Arbaaz Khan for it was due to him that he forayed in Bollywood and carved a niche for himself in action and martial arts based films. Currently Akshay has a lot on his plate with his film 'Toilet Ek Prem Katha' gearing up for release on August 11. He will also be seen in 'Padman' and '2.0' which also stars Rajinikanth.
