'Saugandh' star Shanthi Priya says Akshay Kumar told she cannot be a heroine, said industry treats married women differently

Shanthi Priya and Akshay Kumar

Akshay Kumar's first heroine, Shanthi Priya, recently spoke about her meet with the actor when she planned on making a comeback. The actress who has done over 30 films in her heyday had quit the movies to focus on her families. However, recently she wished to make a comeback to the movies and reached out to Akshay Kumar for the some leads,

In an interview with Bollywood Thikana, Shanthi Priya recalled her interaction with Akshay Kumar on the sets of the film 'Holiday: A Soldier is Never Off Duty'. She revealed that the actor was warm towards her but later ghosted her. She said, "When I met him on the Holiday set, he was the same Akshay. I told him that I want to come back, he asked me how I was doing, how my kids were doing. We had a nice half-hour conversation during his lunch break. He introduced me to Sonakshi, and told her that I was his first heroine. So, I told him I was planning to come back, and to let me know if there's any good thing…"

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Akshay told Shanthi she looks the same but also told her that she cannot play a heroine. "Shanthi Priya was taken aback, and replied, "If you can play a hero, why can't I play a heroine?" She said that he told her that women aren't treated the same after marriage and asked her to look for work in the south.

Priya further shared how the first meeting with Akshay was easy but later his team started getting unresponsive. "I learned that one shouldn't have hope… I don't want to hide anything, after that I got a call from his secretary for Airlift. He said sir wants your pictures, blah blah… I immediately emailed the pictures, and kept calling. They kept telling me they'll get back to me, but they never did. Calling, no pick up, calling no pick up… The true colour came out. I messaged Akshay, no reply. Seen, no reply; seen, no reply; seen, no reply. It was horrible. And my mom has a soft corner for him. I asked her if I should still call him, she said stop," she shared.

Shanthi Priya said that it was her who agreed to star opposite Akshay in his debut film at a time when she was already a couple of films old. She expressed that when it was Akshay's turn to return the favour he did not come through. "You are giving everybody an opportunity, but you've forgotten your first heroine," she said. Meanwhile, Shanthi Priya was recently seen in the MX Player series 'Dharavi Bank' starring Suniel Shetty.