Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, who has been under the firing line of many critics for giving up his Indian citizenship and embracing Canadian citizenship, has announced that he is soon going to surrender his Canadian passport and resume his Indian citizenship.
In a session with me at Hindustantimes Leadership Summit, @akshaykumar announces that he is giving up his Canadian Passport and resuming Indian citizenship! #HTLS2019 pic.twitter.com/F9iVcYWmP4
— Sonal Kalra (@sonalkalra) December 6, 2019
Speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership summit, Akshay Kumar said that he indeed is mulling over giving up his Canadian passport and embracing Indian citizenship.
Talking about the citizenship issue, Akshay Kumar said that during the early phase of his career in Bollywood, around 14-15 movies of him had flopped. At that time one his closest friends, who stays in Canada, advised him to move to Canada to work with him. After that, he started the process of moving to Canada, and he got his Canadian passport. But by the time he was granted Canadian citizenship, his 15th movie became a superhit, and he stayed back in India and moved on with his successful career in Bollywood, not looking back. During this time, he didn’t think about changing his citizenship again.
But now that he is being questioned for his citizenship, it hurts him, Akshay Kumar said. He added that he does not his distractors to use the issue to target him, and he has already applied for Indian citizenship, and it will be granted soon.
His interview cna be watched from the 36th minutes onwards in the video below.
#HTLS2019 | I never look back, I always look ahead… Don’t have any regrets – #KareenaKapoorKhan on turning down big roles
Catch @akshaykumar and Kareena Kapoor Khan LIVE in action: https://t.co/XKyFAFolzG
— Hindustan Times (@htTweets) December 6, 2019
In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections 2019, Akshay Kumar’s interview with PM Modi had sent the Modi detractors round the bend, following which a coordinated campaign was run to discredit Kumar by raising aspersions about his citizenship.
Akshay had to then issue a clarification about his citizenship. In a strongly-worded official statement released by Akshay, he had said, “I really don’t understand the unwarranted interest and negativity about my citizenship. I have never hidden or denied that I hold a Canadian passport. It is also equally true that I have not visited Canada in the last seven years. I work in India, and pay all my taxes in India.”
— Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) May 3, 2019
However, despite his clarification, the critiques and kept questioning his decision to give up Indian citizenship and accepting the seductive wilderness of Canada. Undeterred by the naysayers, Kumar proudly wears patriotism on his sleeves and routinely helps the Indian government. ‘Bharat Ke Veer’ initiative, that provided direct financial aid to the families of the martyred soldiers, was a brainchild of Akshay Kumar. Kumar also vowed to donate Rs 5 crores to the soldiers after the ghastly attack in Pulwama by a Pakistani backed terrorist killed 40 CRPF personnel. Akshay Kumar recently also donated Rs 2 crores- 1 crore each for Assam floods and Kaziranga Park rescue.
Earlier there were confusions about Akshay Kumar’s citizenship as he had implied that his Canadian citizenship was honorary in an interview with a news channel. But later it was revealed that he had taken normal citizenship of Canada and it was not honorary citizenship, as the official list of honorary citizenship granted by Canada didn’t feature his name.
