Shanthi Priya, who had shared screen space with Akshay Kumar in the 1991 film Saugandh, accused him of ghosting her when she attempted a comeback. Priya, who has featured in more than 30 films during her career, had taken a sabbatical to focus on her family. However, a few years ago, she decided to give acting another shot and reached out to Akshay for help.During an interaction with Bollywood Thikana, the actress recalled her conversation with Akshay Kumar on the sets of Holiday: A Soldier is Never Off Duty. Shanthi shared how Akshay’s response initially was warm but later vanished. Despite sending numerous messages to him, she received no reply.
Heartbroken by the response of Bollywood’s Khiladi, Priya said, “When I met him on the Holiday set, he was the same Akshay. I told him that I want to come back, and he asked me how I was doing, how my kids were doing. We had a nice half-hour conversation during his lunch break. He introduced me to Sonakshi and told her that I was his first heroine. So, I told him I was planning to come back and to let me know if there’s any good thingâ€æ” She said that Akshay told her that she still ‘looks the same’, but also gave her a reality check, and told her, “You know you can’t play a heroine, right?” Shanthi Priya was taken aback, and replied, “If you can play a hero, why can’t I play a heroine?” Having said that, Shanthi mentioned that women in the industry aren’t treated the same ‘after marriage’. The actress who has been trying hard to make her comeback in films, Priya, revealed how it was easy to get in touch with Kumar as his secretary had set up the meeting. However, things changed later. “I learned that one shouldn’t have hopeâ€æ I don’t want to hide anything, but after that, I got a call from his secretary for Airlift. He said sir wants your pictures, blah blahâ€æ I immediately emailed the pictures and kept calling. They kept telling me they’ll get back to me, but they never did. Calling, no pick up, calling, no pick upâ€æ The true colour came out. I messaged Akshay, no reply. Seen, no reply; seen, no reply; seen, no reply. It was horrible. And my mom has a soft corner for him. I asked her if I should still call him, she said stop.”
Shanthi Priya said that when Akshay got a new secretary, she introduced herself once again, and the secretary told her they’d ask Akshay and get back to her, but after that, even they stopped responding to her. Shanthi Priya said that it was she who agreed to be cast opposite Akshay in his first film as lead, even though he was new and she had a few films under her belt. But when it was his turn to return the favour, he didn’t come through. “You are giving everybody an opportunity, but you’ve forgotten your first heroine,” she said.