Akshay Kumar and Karan Johar
Akshay Kumar and Karan Johar

With Akshay Kumar, Karan Johar has his trifecta of superstars – Akki follows Salman Khan and Aamir Khan as two actors who appeared on an episode of Koffee With Karan for the first time. You can tell right off the bat that Akshay wasn’t too enthusiastic about coming on this show, and, in fact, he completely took Karan’s case while there. He told the host that no one likes to be grilled, no one wants to answer anything stupid, and no one wants to hurt anyone’s feelings. Ouch! Despite that, over the course of the show, we learned several things about Akshay – and we’ve rounded those up here for you so you can have a quick recap!

1. He loves Twinkle Khanna’s candid personality

It turns out that Twinkle was approached to be on the show, but she chose not to since she felt she would open her mouth and say something that she would later regret. KJo claimed that Twinkle will say anything that comes to her head, and Akshay agreed, saying she has no filter. He even related one incident, when he took her for the trial of one of his films, and at the end of it she told the producer, “Shit film banayi aapne.” (“You made a shit film.”) Poor Akshay, that producer never worked with him again! However, it’s that nature that keeps Akshay and Twinkle together. The actor claimed that they are poles apart and that’s why they keep discovering new things about each other.

Twinkle’s candid personality is something KJo loves as well – in fact, Twinkle is the only woman KJo has been madly in love with!

Akshay Kumar
Akshay Kumar

2. He starts his day early

Karan revealed that this was the earliest he’s ever shot an episode of Koffee With Karan. Akshay wanted to do it at 6am, but they convinced him to start at 8am and eventually began at 9. Karan asked him why he likes to torture people, to which Akshay replied, “I’m surprised you call it torturing. Mornings, you’re supposed to get up and work! You should go to sleep early and wake up early. I finish a lot of work in the morning, and by 6 I’m absolutely free. I get a lot of time to spend with my family, my children. I even get time to drop my son to school, bring him back… we have to have, if not lunch, then dinner together on the table. There are some rules in the house and we need to follow that. That’s it.”

Sonakshi Sinha said he likes to start his day at 5am, go to the gym, and be on sets by 7am. Lara Dutta said it’s great he likes to start early, but that often means that the actress has to start her makeup at 4am. Kareena Kapoor Khan, meanwhile, said that she doesn’t know when they’ll start shooting, because “5am is not happening. I can’t wake up at 5. You like packing up at 4pm, while I start at 2… so I don’t know how we’ll balance this.”

Karan Johar, Akshay Kumar
Karan Johar, Akshay Kumar

3. He’s terrible with his dialogues

Lara Dutta also revealed that, “He is terrible with his dialogues. So half the time the actresses have the dialogues printed on a paper on her costume, behind her head, so Akshay can read off. It looks like he’s looking at you but he’s reading off his dialogues.” But there’s a reason to that: Akshay says it’s a waste of time if his co-actor recites a long dialogue and then has to say it all again just because he has forgotten his. Therefore, by having a board in the back, he can read off his dialogues and save everyone the time!

4. He prefers staying silent about some matters

In a sharp contrast to his wife, Akshay has a good “filter” when it comes to speaking his mind. The actor’s initial hesitation about coming to the show was because he felt Karan asked questions that would lead to controversy. He said he doesn’t like speaking about people, and doesn’t want to go through the hassle of calling people later to clarify things that he said on the show. “I didn’t want to speak wrong about anyone. That is not me. I’m not made like that. I cannot say anything… if someone is doing something wrong to me, I’ll just keep quiet.” Is there dignity in silence or is it perceived as a weakness? “I believe silence is much better. I’ve saved myself in lots of things by just being silent.” That’s why he didn’t elaborate much on the Joker issue. He did say that there were some things which he felt weren’t right, but he’s proud of the film and, whatever the fate, it is still his film at the end of the day.

Karan Johar and Akshay Kumar
Karan Johar and Akshay Kumar

5. He’s not ashamed of his casanova image

He’s been referred to as a huge casanova in the past, but it’s not something he’s ashamed about. “I’m not ashamed of it. I was not married, I was a full-grown man, so there’s nothing wrong with what I did in life.” As for whether he finds it difficult to be faithful now, Akshay says, “When you have your children waiting back home, after pack up you just want to run back.”

6. Akshay’s mother is the secret of his success

At this point, Akshay says he has everything – even the things he couldn’t imagine or dream of. “For me, I just have to ask my mother – this is what I want. And all she has to do is rub my hair and say ‘puttar, koi gaal nahin. Mil jayega.‘ And it happens. I always tell people, you don’t have to go to any temple or mandir or anything. You just have to be with your mother and father. You just have to ask them. To me, it has happened. To my sister, it has happened. To a lot of other people who have done this, it has happened. This is the formula I’ve always followed.”

7. He can fix cards

Don’t try to gamble with Akshay as your opponent, ’cause he knows how to cheat. The actor readily admits that he knows how to fix cards and has picked up this technique in Thailand. Apparently, even Karan’s mum asks Akshay to sit next to her when she’s playing so that she can win. “I told people I can fix cards. I deliberately lose when I go for these Diwali parties, because I’ve only told them I can fix cards.”

What did you think of Akshay’s episode of Koffee With Karan? And isn’t he looking dapper? The actor is in Emporio Armani!