If I say it’s been crazy busy at work lately, will that excuse me missing Akshaye’s birthday? Or is that a weak excuse? I was tempted to just ignore it entirely, but then I found the time and I thought “better late than never”. So, here are 12 reasons I love him, plus one extra to make up for being late! And they are mostly performances, because he is a very private person.
1.1. I love him because he survived a very public and very odd childhood (more details here)
2. I love him because this odd childhood doesn’t seem to have permanently affected his relationship with his father or his half-siblings and stepmother, which is pretty remarkable.
3. I love him because he made an impression in only his second film, age 22, among a cast of veterans and stars.
4. And in his 3rd film, he pulled off the rare “father and son romanced the same actress” prize with Madhuri!
And it was SO MUCH LESS SCARY than when his father romanced her!
5. I love him because he lucked or talented (is that a word? It should be!) into a couple of classic AR Rahman song sequences right at the start of his career. First “Taram Pum” from Doli Saja Ke Rekhna.
6. Then “Nahin Samne” from Taal.
7. I love you because you hit your stride in the early 2000s, finding roles that managed to combine deep sensitive characters with popular success. Starting with Dil Chahta Hai, and then popping over to Canadian art cinema to do a friendly appearance in your brother’s film Bollywood/Hollywood.
8. You made my all time favorite Priyadarshan film.
9. And you made time to reunite with your Mohabbat co-star again! In a role so small that most “name” actors wouldn’t have even considered it.
10. But that is what I maybe love most about you! That you realized halfway through your career that you would rather do smaller interesting character parts than keep playing the romantic lead. And therefore, at only 30, you took two years off filming and came back playing the small detective role in 36 China Town.
11. And then after 6 years of playing the comic smaller part, you took another break. Okay, smaller comic part, and one amazingly fun villain. With an amazingly catchy love song.
12. And then you came back, as good as ever, to play another great villain in Dishoom!
13. And finally, my bonus reason to love you, remember that time you were in a movie with Amitabh and Sanjay Dutt who set his hand on fire?
dontcallitbollywood 
His character in Dil Chahta Hai is one of my all time favorites!
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Agree! I was going to put up a Dil Chahta Hai song, but all of the ones with Akshay in them are stupid (opening club song, strangely bad CGI dream scene song). Well, except for the title song, but I just put that up a little bit ago.
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I hope he’s not taking another long break.He’s one of the few natural actors in Bollywood though he can amp up the drama on demand.I believe his receding hair line was partly to blame for his offers drying up.And he’s so much better as a villain and I was rooting for him and Katrina the whole time in Race 1.The script is clearly in favor of Saif but Akshaye Khanne succeeded in seducing me to the dark side.
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I felt the same way about Race 1!!!! He was so amusing to watch, and brought so much depth to a really not very deep character, it made the “good guys” seem bland by comparison. Heck, even in Dishoom I kind of wanted to see him get away with it all!
On Wed, Mar 29, 2017 at 12:24 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I think datablue is right that his receding hairline dried up his movie offers, but I prefer him with the closely shaved balding look! It’s his ultra short arms that you can’t unnotice once you’ve noticed them. First saw him in Aaja Nachle and loved him in it…one of the sexiest to date, probably mostly because of his great chemistry with Madhuri.
Hulchul is also my favorite Priyardarshian film! With Bhool Bhuliya a close second.
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Hulchul twins! But now I am worried that next time I watch it I will fixate on the short arms. And I’d just gotten past Akshay ‘ s strangely short legs! Maybe it’s something about film stars named “Akshay”? Their limbs are never proportionate?
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Isn’t that first picture Jackie and Tiger Shroff, not Vinod and Akshaye Khanna?
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Huh, now I have to go back and look again!
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Shoot, you’re right! How did I not notice that? And how did no one else who read this post notice it? anyway, it’s fixed now.
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Akshaye Khanna is such a gem of an actor. He manages to charm and draw our attention in the smallest side roles. The only other actor who does that now is Rajkumar Rao. And thank you for reminding us of some excellent songs from the early 00s.
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What I really can’t believe is that he is Vinod’s son! They have such different acting styles.
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