
Akshaye Khanna once 'fired' THIS actress because she refused a film with him, later she asked for help from..., her name is...
Bollywood actress Vidya Balan is celebrated for her happy-go lucky persona and charming presence. Recently, she recalled a light-hearted incident from her initial days in the film industry. The dynamic performer discussed candidly how she refused a film with Akshaye Khanna, and didn't have the guts to tell him herself.
In a conversation with Bollywood Hungama, Vidya shared that she turned down the film with Akshaye as she couldn't connect with the script. Instead, to inform Akshaye directly, she asked her manager to pass on the message to the director. However, little did she knew that she would bump into him after that on the sets of Salaam-e-Ishq (2007).
Vidya humorously mentioned, 'Akshaye fired me, He was like, 'Why didn't you tell me you didn't want to do the film?' She admitted running for help from her co-star John Abraham and said, 'Please save me!' She added, 'I was so new back then. I didn't want any confrontation.'
Though she was scared at first, but Vidya soon realised that Akshaye was just teasing her. She smiled and said, 'Of course, he was only pulling my leg.'
Akshaye and Vidya eventually collaborated together in Nikkhil Advani's Salaam-e-Ishq. Released in 2007, the romantic drama is an unofficial adaptation of Love Actually , showcasing six different love stories, played by a star-studded cast including Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Govinda, Juhi Chawla, and others.
Meanwhile, on the work front, Vidya Balan was last seen in Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 , opposite Kartik Aaryan, Madhuri Dixit and Tripti Dimri. Akshaye Khanna, on the other hand, recently captivated audiences with his cold and calculated performance as Aurangzeb in Chhaava.
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Indian Express
4 hours ago
- Indian Express
Bollywood 6-month report card: Polarising Chhaava, spunky Sitaare Zameen Par and the terrible Sikandar, here's the best and worst of 2025 till now
At the halfway mark, Bollywood can boast of only one blockbuster, Chhaava. Yes, count it. The other big-budget movies starring A-listers (Jaat, Raid 2, Sky Force, Kesari 2, Deva, Sikandar) check the hit, semi-hit, average, average, flop, disaster boxes respectively. The fifth iteration of the broad-risque Bollywood comedy franchise, Housefull 5 (if you don't count Masti and its many copies), is on the path to being labelled a success. The film is still in theatres, so a final verdict is awaited, but it looks as if it will roll over into safety. The very middling family entertainer 'Bhool Chuk Maaf', with Rajkummar Rao in the lead, is a hit. It comes from the Dinesh Vijan-Maddock stable, which gave us one of last year's few hits in horror-com 'Stree 2', and it nestles in the same loud family entertainment zone that has become one of Bollywood's two safe spaces, the other being louder films which come waving the flag. Six months, only one blockbuster, a handful of hits, and a profusion of pits. Is Bollywood continuing its dismal dive? At this exact time last year, it was the same situation: the two big box office winners of 2024, Stree 2 and Pushpa 2, came in the second half of the year. That Chhaava, in which Vicky Kaushal plays Chhatrapati Shivaji's son Sambhaji, would be a box office monster was a no-brainer. The Laxman Utekar directorial which has an actor bringing his A-game to a plot soaked in nationalistic fervour, while at the same time showing those bad Muslims in worse light, is exactly the kind of film which has been doing well in these times, and who cares if a riot or two and more polarisation is the outcome? ALSO READ | From 'Gadar 2' to 'Chhaava' – an assertion of identity, deployed for politics Chhaava's roaring success proves a couple of things: that today's audience can only become a mass if the film has the potential to cause hysteria both inside and outside theatres; and that evil Mughals are still the most favourite whipping boys in Hindi movies. Props not just to Kaushal for straining nobly through 40 climactic bloody minutes, but also to Akshaye Khanna, who managed to down-size Aurangzeb, soorma eyes to the fore, without cracking up. Roaring tiger, whimpering dragon. It also proves that patriots declaiming high-decibel speeches still have mfn (most favoured nation) status. But not all patriots are equal: Akshay Kumar's air force officer couldn't make 'Sky Force' soar (no enough crude jingoism, no vile Muslims); the same star masquerading as a Malayali lawyer who stood up against the British after the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy also couldn't get 'em roaring. 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ALSO READ | Apology and betrayal: Mohanlal, Prithviraj Sukumaran and Murali Gopy's L2 Empuraan is not the interactive cinema we had hoped to experience one day All the talk of rationalising spiralling film budgets is so much hot air: the astronomical star fees, and their massive entourages make returns that much more difficult. This has been an on-going problem, and it shows no signs of abating. Why doesn't Bollywood learn from other industries, especially Malayalam, in which the focus is the plot, and not the star? Isn't it beyond high time? Just look at the series of hits that have emerged in the last six months, starting with L2 Empuraan (also dubbed in Hindi), Thudarum, Tourist Family, Alapuzhaa Gymkhana, among others: all very different in tone and tenor, but never losing sight of the ultimate objective of making a solid, mindful entertainers. But more than anything else, it is the presence of multiple streaming options, with new films dropping within weeks, that has brought Bollywood to its knees. Why would anyone, in these post-pandemic scrunched budget times, spend so much for so little? Even indie-spirited big studio films like the Reema Kagti-helmed 'Superboys of Malegaon' (produced by Kagti, Zoya Akhtar, Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani), which I found not half as smart or moving as the original Faiza Khan documentary 'Supermen of Malegaon' couldn't find a big enough paying audience in its theatrical release, and had to resort to its Prime Video home to discover a bigger catchment. Not that OTT exclusives, which were meant to change the game, have covered themselves with glory. Even the kindest critic can find nothing good to say about 'Nadaaniyan', a staggeringly bad Netflix original starring debutant Ibrahim Ali Khan and Khushi Kapoor; equally awful was the Saif Ali Khan-Jaideep Ahlawat heist drama 'Jewel Thief', also on the same platform. Prime Video has done better, with Boman Irani's self-assured directorial debut 'The Mehta Boys', in which he plays loving daddy to Avinash Tiwary's self-absorbed son. Karan Tejpal's 2023 'Stolen', which dropped on Prime last month, uses real-life incidents of kidnapped babies to examine the multiple divides in India: I didn't fall in love with the film, but it is no massage-the-starry-ego-vehicle, and that is the only way films that hope to command our attention, as well as our wallets, should be made. Zee's film slate, up until now, has given us one film which is a stayer: Mrs, directed by Arati Kadav, and toplined by Sanya Malhotra. 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The spiritual successor of 'Taare Zameen Par' has Aamir Khan leading from the front, sometimes more than strictly necessary— the script keeps finding excuses to insert him in scenes—but he shares space with infinite good grace while making fun of himself, platforming a wonderful bunch of neurodivergent young adults with spunk and character as the real heroes. It is still running in theatres, but the smart money says that it will be a hit. And Aamir, by declaring ahead of the film's release that it will not come out on OTT and will only be available in theatres for the foreseeable future, could just have hit upon the one crucial thing that may save the movies in the long run: if you want to watch it, buy a ticket, and get into a theatre. The only-in-theatres declaration needs confidence in your film, and belief in its potential, something Hindi film producers seem to have lost the capacity for, in their craze for the oversize lollies held out by deal-making streaming platforms: if you've got your money upfront, it's pointless investing time, money and thought over a film. But remember the old adage? No pain, no gain. Take that risk, give it your best shot, make that movie showcasing your story not showboating your star, and we will, I promise you, show up.


Time of India
6 hours ago
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First Post
12 hours ago
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Reviews-E-Reshammiya: Himesh Reshammiya's review of Priyanka Chopra Jonas, John Cena & Idris Elba's Heads Of State will leave you in splits
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