Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar is being brutally slammed on Twitter for his comment about liking curvy girls and not the ones who look like “sucked up mangoes” from an old interview.
The actor was recently lauded by netizens for his performance in Laxmmi Bomb, where he is playing a character of trans Laxmmi.
The 51-year-old actor, who sponsors around 20 top Indian brands, is currently busy promoting his upcoming movie “Housefull 4”, which is latest in the Housefull series.
The controversy began when an old interview with an Indian news website from 2012 surfaced on the internet.
Kumar was praising actresses Sonakshi Sinha and Asin when he uttered: “She (Sonakshi) has a different figure - a typical, Indian figure and not size zero. Looks like she is from a well-off family. I am a pure Punjabi. I like heroines who are curvy. They shouldn't look like sucked up mangoes.”
The remark did not go down well with a lot of netizens who took to Twitter to slam the Bollywood biggie.
However, in an interview to The Hindustan Times actress Sonakshi Sinha was quick to defend Akshay as she stated trolls really have nothing better to do in life.
“… People need to understand I was body-shamed at the start of my career, and what Akshay said was probably in response to something on the same lines… I have a great friendship and working equation with him. So, he was talking about a friend and not a random person.”
“If anything, he was being a gentleman and defending me with no intention of “objectifying” anyone,” she added.
Akshay Kumar has been in controversies earlier as well for his previous comment. During a reality TV in 2017, his co-host Mallika Dua had made allegations against him of making an inappropriate comment, which eventually led to the superstar’s wife Twinkle Khanna apologising for it.