53RD BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE TO RAJIV BHATIA TURNED AKSHAY KUMAR
JYOTHI VENKATESH
He was very lean and lanky 32 years ago when I met him for the first time and he was known only as Rajiv Bhatia and was assisting the well known photographer Jayesh Sheth. The venue I met him was exotic- Madh Island in a lovely cottage with garden where I had escorted the starlet Renu Arya who was excited that she was all set to make her debut in films with a film called Biwi Ho To Aisi starring Farouque Shaikh and Rekha in the lead. No one knew that yet another lean and lanky boy who was destined to be a competitor to Akshay Kumar was also being introduced in the film. His name was Salman Khan and he was the privileged son of Salim Khan, who was one of the popular writer- duo Salim- Javed. While Salman Khan played the role of Vikram Vicky Bhandari, Renu Arya played the role of his beloved called Aarti in it. The film was directed by J.K. Bihari and the year was 1988
Today I am writing this article to celebrate the 53rd of the birthday of that 23 year old boy called Rajiv Bhatia who later on has emerged as one of the most prolific and handsome stars in the 2000’s with the screen name of Akshay Kumar. The boy who was assisting Jayesh in his photography sessions by catching hold of the lights while he was shooting top notch models and actresses including Rekha did not know that day when he was busy assisting Jayesh that a day would come when he would be privileged to act with the likes of Rekha and Salman Khan too in films, as a successful actor, as time proved, whereas Renu Arya has receded into oblivion and taken up a job as an air hostess after working in a film like Biwi Ho To Aisi, with Salman Khan as her leading man and Farouque Shaikh and Rekha as her co-actors.
Frankly, I did not dream that the lanky boy would eventually end up as a big super star in Bollywood and what’s more would give the other stars a big threat by being prolific with as many as five films coming up every year with him as the leading man, most of which are also being produced by him, including Bell Bottom which is the first Hindi film to start shooting post the pandemic, that too in far off Scotland right now. However, one thing that I always notice whenever I bump into the star is that he continues to be down to earth and humble and is yet to throw airs as a super star.
I still remember how during the break in the shoot by Jayesh Sheth for lunch, when Jayesh asked me if I would like to have chilled beer since it was very hot, I asked him to get three bottles of chilled beer and he in turn had ordered his assistant to fetch them from a wine shop nearby. The boy’s first reaction was to tell us that he does not drink at all and hence he did not know the location of the wine shop. However, when Jayesh handed over a 100 rupee note to him, he said that three bottles of beer would cost Rs 105 as each bottle cost Rs 35. When Jayesh and I reprimanded him for telling a lie that he does not drink, he shot back sheepishly, “My friends drink beer and I have seen them buying at wine shops”.
Rajiv fetched three bottles of chilled beer for us and when I asked him why he did not buy any ‘chakna’ to go with the beer, he said that he did not have five rupees in change and I gave him a tenner and asked him to fetch some shing daana and without any hesitation, the poor guy ran back to fetch us shing danas.
When the press was being introduced to the new comer Akshay Kumar by director Pramod Chakraborty at a party to mark the completion of his film Deedar, when Chakkida, as Pramod Chakraborty was affectionately called, I told Akshay “Glad to meet you”, when immediately Akshay told me that he had already met me at Jayesh’s shooting and reminded me that he was assisting Jayesh at that time. I was flummoxed and decided to be his fan for life for telling me the truth.
The next time I met Akshay was at Mauritius where I had gone with the late producer Champak Jain of Venus which was producing the film to cover the shooting of Main Khilari Tu Anari. Present at the venue was Shilpa Shetty with whom Akshay shot for the breezy romantic number Main Khilari Tu Anari the very next day of my having landed there in Mauritius. Ratan Jain, elder brother of Champak had actually asked the PRO of the film Ajit Ghosh to fetch me to Mauritius with him but he insisted on getting his journalist friends from important papers like Screen, Filmfare, Cine Blitz and Stardust for the outdoors and not me alone and in ager, Ratan just cancelled the idea of taking him along and just took me. It was a lovely trip for five days and my first ever visit to Mauritius way back in 1993.
The day after the shooting of the first day of the song, Akshay was free and offered to drive the car in the beaches of Mauritius where hardly anyone other than the unit . The staunch teetotaller that Akki is, he shunned beer whereas I spent time drinking chilled beer at noon by the beach. While driving the car back, he skidded it over the sand dunes in the beach and we almost were about to be overturned and when I told Ratan what had happened, Akshay was livid with anger but could only mutter aap ke pet mein kuch nahi rakhte aap. The same evening, Abbas of Abbas and Mustan duo was all set to celebrate his birthday in the hotel where we were staying and there was a big bash in the evening which was also attended by Saif Ali Khan, Rajeshwari, who were shooting for a film and Tabu and Ajay Devgn who were shooting with Abbas-Mustan besides Shilpa Shetty.
Akshay and Ajay are big prank masters in the industry and decided to teach me a lesson by dumping me into the pool when I was gossiping with Tabu and Shilpa Shetty by the pool with a glass of scotch. Just before I was dumped, I was telling Tabu and Shilpa that I did not know swimming at all and when they saw me struggling to come outside the pool. Shilpa started screaming at both of them and ultimately it was Ajay and Akshay who removed their pants and jumped in their underwear to rescue me from swimming and drowning. I decided to take my own sweet revenge by pretending to be breathless when Ajay, Akshay and Ratan placed me by the poolside but though I thought that Tabu or Shilpa would try to save me, when Ratan Jain tried to resuscitate me by placing his lips on my lips, I was startled and decided to jump up and it turned out to be a memorable night for everyone in the unit that day- a birthday neither Abbas, Mustan, Ajay, Akshay, Shilpa or for that matter Tabu would be able to forget till date, I presume.
Today as Akshay is celebrating his 53rd birthday, I, on behalf of Cinema TV Today wish him a very happy 53rd birthday and a loooooong career ahead of him