Actor Akshaye Khanna is earning plenty of appreciation for his performance in director Aditya Dhar's Dhurandhar, making some audiences call him one of the year's biggest stars. Time is ripe to remind you of a phase in Akshaye's career when he talked about what it meant to be a successful film star in India. In an old conversation with Anuradha Prasad, Akshaye addressed a question about his lack of stardom despite him earning critical appreciation for his performances. In his response, Akshaye admitted that he was not a big star, but he also questioned the perception of what success meant in India. He explained it by rhetorically saying that people would not consider him successful even if he had a 500 crore business if he did not have as much success as Ratan Tata, Azim Premji, or Dhirubhai Ambani. Akshaye also drew a parallel between him and Shah Rukh Khan and said that only a handful of people from India's population got the opportunity to act in films like them. “Would that be not enough? Would I not be successful if I do not become Shah Rukh Khan?” the Dhurandhar actor said rhetorically.

Speaking of which, Shah Rukh Khan once praised Akshaye’s acting chops at an event where they promoted the latter's film Ittefaq. The superstar said that despite Akshaye's “reticent” nature, the actor would do “something unfathomable” when he came onscreen every now and then. “I really really appreciate your acting, man. This is the honest truth,” said Shah Rukh about Akshaye.

Dhurandhar stars Akshaye Khanna as Rehman Dakait, a fierce and ruthless Pakistani crime lord and politician, based on real-life Karachi gangster of the same name. He is the main antagonist in the film who aids terrorists by providing them with weapons.