Akshaye Khanna is presently basking in the glory of an enormous career resurgence, thanks to his electrifying performance in Dhurandhar . However, director Farah Khan gave fans an honest account of how the actor was anything but the ‘chill’ person he is today, as the director shared on Ranveer Allahbadia’s podcast that in the 1990s, she was so “traumatised” by Akshaye Khanna that she avoided films starring him.
Farah Khan opens up on Akshaye Khanna
“In the ’90s, I did a couple of movies with Akshaye, and after that I was traumatised. Because he used to be a different person. Yes, introverted, but not a nice person on set. Whenever I heard that Akshaye Khanna was in a film, I used to say, ‘I don’t have the dates’,” she said.
According to Farah, the young actor was “not a nice person” on set during their early collaborations. She recalled him being constantly irritable, frequently throwing things and questioning scripts with a volatile temperament. The root of this angst, she explains, was deeply personal: Akshaye was struggling with hair loss. At just 19, he viewed the change as an existential threat to his career. This insecurity led to a rigid defensiveness; Farah noted that he would insist on wearing caps in every rain sequence, such as in Taal, to hide his thinning hair.
The transformation in his life began when he worked in the 2001 cult film Dil Chahta Hai. It was a film that he was doing for Farhan Akhtar’s directorial debut, and I think he had finally reconciled with his hair.” Akshaye had finally accepted his hair loss and had become his carefree self.
Today, the two share a warm rapport, with Farah thinks he deserves an Oscar for what he has done in his last film.”