Released in 1992, the romantic action thriller Khiladi starred Akshay Kumar, Ayesha Jhulka, Deepak Tijori and Sabeeha in the leading roles. The Abbas-Mustan directorial turned out to Akshay's breakthrough film in the Hindi film industry and emerged as a hit at the box office.
But Akshay Kumar wasn't Abbas-Maustan's first choice for Khiladi. They had approached a star kid for the role, who still hadn't made his Bollywood debut by then. It was none other than Salman Khan's brother and Salim Khan's son Arbaaz Khan. Khan went on to make his debut with Abbas-Mustan in the 1996 film Daraar, which also starred Rishi Kapoor and Juhi Chawla.
In a recent interview, Arbaaz revealed the reason why he rejected Khiladi. Talking about his debut film Daraar, Khan told Indianexpress.com, "I was approached by the same directors for another film. 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. Akshay Kumar did the role. The movie became a big hit, and Akshay became a big star."
The actor-producer further added, "After Khiladi, they did Baazigar, and then they came to me with Daraar because they still felt they wanted me. 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 own support as actors, I could really 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", Khan, who won the Filmfare Award for Best Villain for his debut film, concluded. He also shared that he was paid Rs 1 lakh as the signing amount for Daraar as he stated, "It was more like a break and money didn’t really matter. It was just like a token amount. It didn’t matter at that time as it was my debut."
After Khiladi's success, Akshay Kumar got the nickname of Khiladi Kumar and starred in the series of Khiladi films, all unrelated to each other. These were Main Khiladi Tu Anari (1994), Sabse Bada Khiladi (1995), Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi (1996), Mr. and Mrs. Khiladi (1997), International Khiladi (1999), Khiladi 420 (2000) and Khiladi 786 (2012).
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