Late actor Vinod Khanna’s son Akshaye Khanna made his Bollywood debut at the age of 19 with the 1997 romance drama Himalay Putra. Produced by Vinod Khanna, he hired the best technicians in the business to give Akshaye the best launch in the industry.
In a recent interview, director Pankaj Parashar revealed how Vinod Khanna called him while looking for a director to launch Akshaye.
“He said obviously, this will be a love story. There are 2-3 conditions. Anu Malik will give the music and Honey Irani will write. I said fantastic. As I was about to leave, I asked ‘Sir can I see him (Akshaye)? ‘” Pankaj said in a chat with Siddharth Kannan on his YouTube channel.
Talking about Akshaye Khanna’s acting skills, the director shared that even though Akshaye was a “natural” actor, he struggled in Hindi.
“His problem was Hindi. He didn’t speak much Hindi. He used to think in English but he was a natural actor. The first day when we gave him a dialogue and he read it, I said ‘Thank god’, because he is an actor. He was just 19 and he performed well,” the filmmaker said.
Pankaj Parashar added that Akshaye Khanna worked on his language skills with a diction coach. “I told Akshaye that you will have to learn. So he learnt. He got a diction teacher and he was a natural.”
When asked if Vinod Khanna interfered with his filmmaking process, Pankaj Parashar clarified that while the veteran actor offered suggestions, he never imposed them.
“He wasn’t interfering but he would give suggestions and if Honey and I didn’t agree with those suggestions, he would concede. But he was always there for music sittings or anything else,” he said.
Aside from Akshaye Khanna, Himalay Putra featured Anjala Zaveri, Hema Malini and Vinod Khanna.