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Apart from being known as a fitness freak, dashing actor and a disciplined human being, Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar is also quite popular for his large-heartedness. Time and again, several other actors have also vouched for this. In one such case in 2009, the ‘Khiladi’ Kumar had terminated his own whopping contract for Delhi Capitals (earlier known as Delhi Daredevils) to save the team from incurring huge losses. Yes, you read that right.
For those who are unaware, Akshay was the brand ambassador of the Delhi franchise and the team had promised the actor a hefty amount for a three-year period, starting 2008, the year IPL came into existence. This old and little known incident has been brought into the limelight by veteran administrator Amrit Mathur in his autobiography ‘Pitchside: My Life in Indian Cricket’, published by Westland Sport.
Mathur wrote in his book, “Akshay Kumar signed a three-year deal with Delhi Daredevils to shoot promotional films, attend meet and greet events and make appearances at corporate events…” He added, “Apart from Kotla act (he performed daring stunts), nothing much happened because DD didn’t know how to leverage him. At the end of the season, during elaborate post-mortem held against backdrop of serious financial losses, DD decided to cancel or renegotiate the contract.”
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However, Akshay Kumar’s contract provided no exit, but rather gave him guarantees for a period of three years. Thus Delhi franchise approached Akshay’s staff to find a way to get out of this but to no avail. But when the legal team failed to bring an end to the contract, cricket administrator Amrit Mathur, who then held an important position at Delhi Daredevils, decided to meet Akshay in person.
In his book, Mathur stated that he met Akshay Kumar during one of his film shoots in 2008. He wrote, “After the shot, we returned to his vanity van, and I very hesitantly explained the reason for my visit and outlined DD’s financial troubles.” In response to this, the ‘Welcome’ actor said, “No problem ji. If it’s not working, let us close it.”
Mathur stated that at first he thought he hadn’t heard him right. Then as he seemed to be confused, Akshay clarified, “Isko khatam kar dete hain, Koi baat nahi, mai lawyer ko bol duga.”
Amrit wrote in his book, “Even after so many years I am surprised that Akshay waived off such a large amount of money. Just like that — snap decision when he could have easily thrown the contract at us.”
On the work front, Akshay Kumar, who is one of the highest paid actors in Bollywood, is enjoying the success of his latest release OMG 2 that is breaking box office records. The film, which was released on August 11, has collected Rs 85 crore till August 18 in India.
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