There’s cause for celebration in the Akshay
Kumar household with his wife Twinkle Khanna delivering a baby girl on
Tuesday in Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital. It’s their second child
together after their ten-year-old son Aarav.
The Khiladi actor, 45,
displayed his parental pride in a statement with: “We are blessed with a
lovely baby girl, who looks just like her mother and grandmother
[veteran actress Dimple Kapadia]”.
Word has it that he was in
the midst of promoting his comedy OMG: Oh My God in Jaipur on Monday
when he had to rush back to Mumbai to be by his wife’s side.
“I have no words to express
my happiness. I would like to thank everyone for their blessings and
best wishes,” added the actor in the statement.
When Kumar visited the Gulf News office in May, he told tabloid! that he was excited at the prospect of becoming a father again,
“I have not decided on any
name because we do not know the gender yet. It feels great to be a
father again. I would just ask you to pray for his or her health and for
the mother’s health,” he said.
Gender prediction tests are illegal in India.
The good news comes in the
midst of a tumultuous time for the Kumar clan as they had to grapple
with his father-in-law Rajesh Khanna’s sudden death in July. Wife
Khanna, who was in the last trimester during her father’s funeral, was
advised to stay away from the last rites. With this, his wife joins the
Bollywood brigade of new mums headlined by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan,
Shilpa Shetty and Lara Dutta.
Meanwhile, Kumar is facing a
few birthing pains with his film OMG: Oh My God in the UAE. While local
cinema managers have pulled the film from their schedule, a top official
at the National Media Council said that the film was still under
review.
“We didn’t ban it nor have we
approved it. We will have to check it again,” said Juma Obaid Al Leem,
director of the Media Content Tracking Department at the Council.
The film, which releases in
India on Friday, is a tale of a shopkeeper (Paresh Rawal) who questions
the existence of a Hindu deity played by Kumar. He added that the film
will be closely reviewed due to its sensitive nature.
“If a film has something to
do with religion — especially at this time — we will have to watch it
closely ,.. We have to give respect to all and we have to take care
about it. We want to respect all the religions, all the nationalities
and all the ideas,” he told tabloid!.
Local distributors of the film declined to comment on the issue.
Kumar is also the producer of the film. - GN
