The recent films of Akshay Kumar have marked quite a long list of leading ladies, and he hasn’t repeatedly worked with anyone. While earlier he went through prolonged phases of on-screen coupling with the likes of Priyanka Chopra, Katrina Kaif and then Sonakshi Sinha, it’s now a free-for-all, with his repertoire seeing actresses being selected at random in his movies.
The process started with Special 26, in which he was paired with Kajal Aggarwal. Then, in 2014, Akshay was seen with Tamannaah Bhatia in Entertainment, followed by Madhurima Tuli in Baby.
Then came Shruti Haasan in Gabbar is Back, Jacqueline Fernandez in Brothers and Amy Jackson in Singh is Bling, Nimrat Kaur in Airlift, Ileana D’Cruz in Rustom and Huma Qureshi in Jolly LLB 2.
Now, the Khiladi actor is pairing up with Bhumi Pednekar as his co-star in Toilet Ek Prem Katha. A trade analyst on the condition of anonymity explains, “After Akshay went through the Priyanka-Katrina-Sonakshi route, he changed his stance regarding his leading ladies. Henceforth, he would act with new faces in every film. This serves three purposes — first, there’s a fresh pair in every film he does. Secondly, the girls are neither very successful, nor too unknown, hence just right to be cast in secondary parts, while Akshay takes centrestage in all his films. Thirdly, by making movies with fresh faces, Akshay avoids the pitfalls of being linked with any woman. By the time gossip would start, he’ll have moved on to a new face. And he never repeats his co-stars these days.”
Earlier, on being asked about the slew of new faces in his films, Akshay had said, “What impels me to work with new faces is change. Keeping my audiences intrigued is a very important part in keeping them interested in my career. When I star opposite a fresh face, the audience has no idea about the kind of connection we’ll have.”
