What Did Dhurandhar Star Akshaye Khanna Say about Sandeep Vanga Reddy’s Kabir Singh?

Akshaye Khanna is the flavour of the season post Dhurandhar. While he portrayed the antagonist Rehman Dakait in the Aditya Dhar film with immense conviction, he had once even explained why audience can

accept even a flawed character if it's shown properly. In a snippet from an old interview which has surfaced on the internet, Akshaye speaks about Sandeep Reddy Vanga's 2019 directorial Kabir Singh, and Shahid Kapoor's performance in it. He lauded the writers and expressed hope in future filmmakers that if they present a character well, be it in any shade, he/she will connect with the audience and the plot.

Akshaye Khanna said audience is ready to accept flawed characters like Kabir Singh

The interview seemingly dates back to 2019-2020 where he's speaking to Rajeev Masand about Kabir Singh. Akshaye discussed the topic and opined why audience can accept even a grey character. He said, "The numbers that the audience has given to Kabir Singh is indicative of something that has changed - a severely flawed leading man, but who people have loved. It's not happened before, at least with these kind of numbers. So fundamentally, that will register with writers, directors and producers, and it'll reflect in future films."

Akshaye's work trejectory over the years, and Dhurandhar

The 50-year-old, who started his career as a romantic hero, even doing several comedies, has over the time switched to more character roles which are grey. Akshaye, who has no qualms about experimenting with scripts, had a noteworthy 2025. Earlier this year, he played the ruthless Aurangzeb in Vicky Kaushal starrer Chhaava. He is now receiving a humongous amount of praise for portraying the main antagonist in Dhurandhar, that also stars Ranveer Singh, R Madhavan, Arjun Rampal, Sanjay Dutt and others.Despite playing a villain with brutal ways, Akshaye has managed to give audience several moments of extreme emotions, even if it required minimal dialogues, thus proving why his craft is a reflection of several years of experience in cinema.