Arbaaz Khan reveals Abbas-Mustan offered him Akshay Kumar’s role in Khiladi: ‘He became a big star but I…’

Instead of making his acting debut as a villain, Arbaaz Khan could have been the ‘Khiladi Khan’ of Bollywood had he not turned down the offer from filmmaker duo Abbas-Mustan to star in their 1992 action-thriller Khiladi. The film established Akshay Kumar’s place in the Hindi film industry as an action hero. Recently, Khan shared why he didn’t agree to take up Khiladi. He also revealed how Abbas-Mustan came back to him with their other film, Daraar, which fetched him the Filmfare Award for Best Villain.

As Khan sat down for a free-wheeling chat with Indianexpress.com, he revisited his Bollywood debut in 1996 with Abbas-Mustan’s romantic thriller Daraar, also starring Juhi Chawla and Rishi Kapoor. “I was approached by the same directors for another film,” shared Arbaaz, while adding, “I couldn’t do it because I was signed up with another director. The film was Khiladi. I was offered Akshay Kumar’s role. But unfortunately, that other film also didn’t happen.”

Khan said, “Akshay Kumar did the role. The movie became a big hit, and Akshay became a big star.” After the 1992 film, Kumar got the moniker of Khiladi Kumar and became one of the most sought-after action heroes in Bollywood. However, Abbas-Mustan had Khan in mind always, and they approached him again with their film Daraar.

“After Khiladi, they did Baazigar, and then they came to me with Daraar because they still felt they wanted me,” Khan shared. Initially hesitant to share how much he was paid for the film, the actor revealed he was paid Rs 1 lakh as the signing amount, “It was more like a break and money didn’t matter. It was just like a token amount. It didn’t matter at that time as it was my debut.”

More than the money, the appreciation he received for his performance and a Filmfare Award was a bigger reward for Arbaaz Khan. Sharing his experience of working on Daraar, he said, “It was great to share the screen with established actors like Juhi Chawla and Rishi Kapoor. I, a newcomer, was pitted against them and to stand around them and to hold my own was not very easy but fortunately, with the help of the director and their support as actors, I could do well. That could be seen when the film was released, the appreciation that I got for it, and recognition I got from one of the most established award functions that is there, so that was good.”

After Daraar, Khan did a film called Sham Ghansham, and then starred in Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya and Hello Brother, both directed by his brother Sohail Khan and led by his elder brother Salman Khan. “Sohail was only 22-23 when he started his career. We both started our careers at the same time, me as an actor and he as a director. We were both two films old when we worked together,” shared Khan.

Now, the actor who wears various hats on the professional front, including that of an actor, director, producer and talk show host, will soon start shooting the next season of his show, The Invincibles, where he speaks to the legendary Bollywood celebrities. He revealed that he has locked the second and third seasons of the show, and will start shooting for it from April.

Without revealing the names of the celebrities he will be interviewing this time around, he shared he is motivated to bring the life of those to the limelight who have achieved big but never got any attention. “In India, there are so many people in various fields who have achieved so much, but so less has been documented about their lives. I saw it in my own house, my father (Salim Khan). He is such a legendary figure, there are some assorted interviews of him, which have snippets about his various work, but there is no sit down where his whole life is encapsulated in a very documented series,” he said.

Through the show, Khan said, he wants to bring out the “vulnerabilities and insecurities” of successful people to the fore. “People only look at us as people who are successful and have everything. They don’t know the trauma or the difficulties that we went through, that is what should be coming across. My father stayed in Marina’s guest house and shared the room with another person. People only see him as a big screenwriter whose son, Salman Khan is successful. They don’t know the kind of struggle behind the success,” he asserted.