Akshay Kumar is currently hailed as the hero of the nationalists, the Manoj Kumar of his generation. The reason? He has been the lead in quite a few socially conscious movies. Akshay Kumar has also been a face of Government's various social initiatives, despite his closeness to the BJP party bringing him a lot of flak. Akshay Kumar has also been quite vocal about various women issues, especially when the conversation was tied around his past movies, Toilet- Ek Prem Katha and Pad Man. Sooryavanshi: Akshay Kumar Introduces us to Bollywood's Cop Universe with Ajay Devgn's Singham and Ranveer Singh's Simmba (View Pic).

So it would be quite embarrassing for the National Award-winning actor and his devoted fans, when an old quote of his, where he distastefully compares heroines to mangoes, is going viral right now. Akshay Kumar had made this statement in 2012 when he was buoyed by the double successes of Rowdy Rathore and Housefull 2. Speaking to TOI, he was asked about his heroines - Sonakshi Sinha and Asin - when he made this statement.

He had said, "Sonakshi is a wonderful actress who has her own style of acting. She has an absolutely different figure – a typical, Indian figure and not size zero. Khaate peete gharane ki lagti hain. I am a pure Punjabi. I like heroines who are hari bhari (fullsome). Chusa hua aam na lagey! (they shouldn't look like sucked up mangoes)." He then went on to ask the journalist if 'chusa hua aam' really means 'sucked up mango', before giggling on his own joke.

We have no clue as to why this quote was brought out of the debris now, all of a sudden. But Akshay Kumar's detractors are using this statement to put holes into the actor's carefully manicured social image. Some of them are even recalling Akshay's interview with PM Narendra Modi, where they discussed how the Prime Minister likes to have his mangoes. Coming to think of it, ewww!

Check out some of the tweets below

Damn! That Burns!

More Sins Revisited!

Poor Twinkle Khanna is Dragged In Here Too!

Goes Around Comes Around

Is There Any Connection?

Another Dig to Twinkle Khanna

Blast From the Past!

Disgusting!

Ah, Well...

To be a little fair, and we are no way in support of what he said, Akshay did give that silly statement nine years back, and we have learnt from Life, that people and their perceptions can change. So hopefully, Akshay's views on what he thinks make for a heroine, which then didn't include 'acting', might have changed. Anyway, this is the last kind of controversy Akshay Kumar needs right now when he is in the middle of promoting his new film, Housefull 4, whose song "Ek Chumma" has been accused of being derogatory to women.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 17, 2019 09:00 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).