Akshay Kumar Rejects Yet Another Film Offered By Priyadarshan

The one thing that must be said in Akshay Kumar’s favour is that he is a thorough professional. You will never find Akshay promoting relatives or falling for sycophantic attempts to please him. Old friend Priyadarshan with whom Akshay has worked in a number of films from Hera Pheri to Khatta Meetha has realized this the hard way. Priyadarshan has been trying to rope in Akshay for a project, any project, since the last four years.

With no concrete results, Priyadarshan’s desperate attempts to woo back Akshay began five years ago with a film on AIDS that he insisted can only be made with Akshay in the lead. The film never got made. Thereafter Priyadarshan has gone to Akshay with sundry offers, to no avail.

Now the prolific director has announced his new ambitious film Makkar the Lion of the Arabian Sea, based on the exploits of the 16th century naval explorer Kunjali Marakkar 4. While the title role in this Hindi-Malayalam-Telugu-Tamil film has gone to Priyadarshan’s old friend and collaborator Mohanlal, Priyadarshan offered Akshay a role which, once again, the actor declined to do.
A close friend of Akshay observes, “If you notice Akshay likes to work with new directors these days. He gave up doing a bunch of films with the same director long ago. Whether it’s Priyadarshan or Suneel Darshan, Akshay is done with the comfort of the familiar.”