Akshay Kumar and his chaddi buddy, producer Sajid Nadiadwala, will be the last celebrity jodi to be featured in the chat show, Yaaron Ki Baraat, where host Sajid Khan has led many a celebrities to let down their guard, loosen up. Be it cricketers Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh, who admitted to gate-crashing weddings, Shaan who admitted being guilty of flicking audio cassettes from shops, or the show’s host Riteish Deshmukh confessing about using the western commode the Indian way for the longest time, celebrities have nonchalantly revealed their secrets.
While shooting the last episode, Akshay wasn’t an exception to the pattern. The actor spoke about travelling ticketless to Matheran. He recalled, “My friends and I would often visit Matheran. While we were a bunch of us, about 10 to 11 friends, we only got two tickets between all of us. We never got caught! The ticket collector (TC) would typically stand at Neral. If the TCs asked us for a ticket, I would step forward and run till the TC chased a good distance. In the meantime, my friends would walk away scot-free.” And if the TC ever caught up with Akshay, he would simply show him the ticket, much to the collector’s chagrin. Akshay and Sajid, who have been students of the same school — Don Bosco in Matunga — would take the same school bus. Academic grades had no place in their friendship, even after the actor flunked twice.
Akshay and Sajid not only attended the same school but got married the same year, had their children the same year, barely three days apart. Today, they are neighbours, and their kids study in the same class. Sajid talks fondly about his friend, who he believes is doing a great job in the industry, “Akshay works on four films a year, and provides employment for so many in the industry. Countless technicians are indebted to him for a living.”
On a lighter note, Sajid added that he makes for a terrible neighbour. “Who wants a neighbour who goes jogging at 5 am and invites you for breakfast by 7 am? We are a household that wakes up by 10 am!” He adds, “It was quite a task, in fact, working on Mujhse Shaadi Karogi. Akshay work up at 5 am, and Salman kept us up all night went off to sleep only at 5 am!”
