Akshaye Khanna in & as the enigma!

I have it from a friend on the set of Laxman Utekarrsquos blockbuster Chhaava 2025 once wherein actor Akshaye Khanna as Mughal emperor Aurangzeb was being instructed to furiously scream out of desperate anger in a particular sceneKhanna shot back ldquoIrsquom Hindustanrsquos Badshah Why will I yellrdquo Take the cripplingly calm Khanna out of Chhaava the rest of the film is a screeching fest firstKhanna played the aged Muslim king in a diametrically opposite way from the excessively feisty ravenous Ranveer Singh as young Alauddin Khilji in Sanjay Leela Bhansalirsquos Padmaavat 2018 mdash a scenestealer stillIn such a way that one forgets mdash technically who was the hero of Padmaavat Shahid Kapoor of courseIn a reversal of sorts ever since Aditya Dharrsquos Dhurandhar 2025 with Singh as the hero this time on there are only two things Irsquove heard from everyone else whorsquos watched the filmMughal emperor Aurangzeb in lsquoChhaavarsquo PicsBy Special ArrangementPrimarily mdash about Khanna as Rehman Dakait Plus the boxoffice brouhaha around Dhurandhar surpassing R1000 crore worldwidegross R10 crore plus postrelease up until 22nd day beating Pushpa 2 Netflix deal worth Rs 285 crore etc etcOr that Khanna himself has subsequently upped his price enough to exit Drishyam 3Frankly how much Khanna charges is his business We must ideally mind our own That said whatrsquos common to the model roles mentioned aboveThat theyrsquore unambiguously dark morally unhinged certifiably Gabbartype stylised villains mdash without that shredshade of a balancing grey that Hindi films had begun to veer toward mid2000 onwards making space for say antiheroesantagonists insteadThe standard villain trope continued to dominate TamilTelugu mainstream throughout still often even with actors sourced from Bollywood Some of this lsquopure evilrsquo has poured over from the current South surelyAlthough must add whatrsquos the best film I watched at a theatre in 2025 Paul Thomas Andersonrsquos One Battle After Another Who should it be most remembered for Sean Penn as the completely crazy Colonel LockjawSelfadmittedly Khanna first played the villain in AbbasMustanrsquos Humraaz 2002 pitted opposite Bobby Deol mdash who in turn entirely resurrected his career as the inexplicably bizarre Abrar ul Haque in Sandeep Vanga Reddyrsquos Animal 2023 likewise brazening it out with his villainous swagBoth Deol and Khanna sons of 1970s superstars Dharmendra Vinod Khanna got launched into Bollywood by their dads as producers in the 1990s mdash with Rajkumar Santoshirsquos Barsaat rsquo95 Pankaj Parasharrsquos Himalay Putra rsquo97 respectivelyTherersquos collective muscle memory for moviestars from the rsquo90s when the mainstream was a monoculture that we inevitably end up rooting for the underdogs from those times mdash in case they lost their route somewhere midway only to find themselves moving up againTherersquos a sticky cord Familiarity breeds content It could operate with several others Govinda chiefly if they find the right vehicle to reenter Therersquos enough space But the DeolKhanna analogy really ends thereBesides as a staggeringly controlled film actor the love for Khanna 50 primarily resides in the inimitable mystique that surrounds himAs in a star whorsquos lived throughout in the neighbouring town to Bollywood if you may mdash a Malabar HillSouth Bombay resident with a weekend home in Alibaug mdash a sworn single man who flunked his Std XI at HR College and left formal education after a year of boardingschool in OotyHis dad drawn to Osho took lsquosanyasrsquo when Khanna was a lirsquol kid only to return once the commune in the US got disbanded check Netflix doc Wild Wild Country of course you haveMost things he canrsquot recall including why hersquos named Akshaye with an lsquoersquo mdash his parents told him a few times but hersquos forgotten since and now theyrsquore no more I know this from a relatively rare extensive conversation with him circa 2020Whatrsquos it like to sit opposite the fluently reticent Khanna before a camera for about an hourandahalfGently painful but equally pleasurable for the same reason That is yoursquore aware hersquos mildly amnesic in public but whatever hersquos saying he hasnrsquot before eitherThatrsquos including his perspectives on cinema wherein he loathes posters designed from photoshoots They lose out on the truth captured when digitally reproduced from a moment in the film itselfOr that the issue with theatre is that itrsquos not recordedTherersquos a point where he did dig deep inwards when asked what it was like as an onscreen actor to lose hair at age 1920ldquoDevastating Itrsquos like a pianist losing his fingers Because the way you look as an actor is very important mdash especially this part pointing to the face upwards But itrsquos up to you and what you are comfortable with doing about itrdquoKhanna carried on as himself showing up onscreen as the lead often with receding hairline mdash secure in his vulnerability making up for it with confidence and charm that the camera naturally adoresItrsquos hard to take your eyes off Khanna on the big screen mainly because hersquos not desperately seeking them The word lsquounderrated has therefore remained stuck as his unwittingly adopted first namePersonally I know that feeling Perhaps you do too Itrsquos not a good one But then again in the longrun between the two yoursquod rather be underrated than over noMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass cultureHe tweets mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper