Akshaye Khanna Joins the Cast of Anupam Kher's The Accidental Prime Minister; Check Out His Look As Sanjay Baru

After that brief hiatus, Akshaye Khanna returned to cinema with a bang in a negative role in Dishoom. Though the movie was an average fare at the box office, Akshaye Khanna was one of the best things about it. Though he rarely played the 'face' of any movie, he did some scene-stealing turns in his subsequent releases like Sridevi's Mom and Sidharth Malhotra's Ittefaq. Now he will seen in a very important role in Anupam Kher's The Accidental Prime Minister.

If you are not aware of this project, Anupam Kher will be playing Dr Manmohan Singh, the former Prime Minister of India. The movie is based on the book by the same name, that has been written by Manmohan Singh's media adviser Sanjay Baru. Akshaye Khanna will be playing Baru in the movie, that has its screenplay written by acclaimed film-maker Hansal Mehta.

It was Hansal who broke the news of Akshaye's casting on Twitter along with his look in the movie. Sharing the shooting commencement date, Hansal wrote, "Exciting days ahead as Akshaye joins the crew. 'The Accidental Prime Minister' begins shooting on March 31 with a fantastic ensemble led by Anupam Kher and Akshaye Khanna."

Later, Akshaye himself confirmed the news as he spoke to ET, “I am thrilled and excited to be a part of a venture which will be path breaker, a game changer at many levels. I realised that it is a very important movie, whether I was a part of it or not was secondary. Even if my role was insignificant I would have still done it."

When he was asked about the aspersions of the people over the movie being made with the intent to malign the former PM, Khanna said, “It is very natural to suspect an agenda in a political thriller of such gravity. But I love the way my Director and the entire team is approaching the movie without any agenda which is very important for a political film." It has to be noted here that Akshaye Khanna's father, the late Vinod Khanna, has been an MP for BJP, while Anupam Kher's wife, Kirron Kher, is a BJP MLA from Chandigarh.

Debutant Vijay Ratnakar Gutte is directing the film, produced by Bohra Brothers. The Accidental Prime Minister will release on December 21, clashing with Shah Rukh Khan's Zero and (hopefully) Sushant Singh Rajput's Kedarnath.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 13, 2018 05:51 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).