Why Akshay Thanked Aamir For His Marriage To Twinkle

Aamir Khan had a big hand in Akshay Kumar's marriage to Twinkle Khanna.

In an interview with Rajat Sharma on India TV's Aap Ki Adalat, Akshay narrated, 'Twinkle had told me, "If Mela flops, I'll marry you". And well, Mela released... and flopped! So I proposed right after.'

The 2000 film starred Aamir and his brother Faisal Khan, along with Twinkle.

It was Aamir's third film after back-to-back hits in Ghulam and Sarfarosh and was predicted to score a hat-trick of hits for the actor.

Mela was directed by Dharmesh Darshan who, in 1996, had given Aamir a superhit in Raja Hindustani.

Yet, Mela flopped.

Twinkle and Akshay wed on January 17, 2001, and have remained one of the Bollywood's most enduring pairs since.

How It Began

Akshay and Twinkle first met during a Filmfare magazine photoshoot in the 1990s.

They acted in two action films, Zulmi and International Khiladi, both in 1999.

Neither film made waves at the box office, but they brought Akshay and Twinkle closer.

Twinkle wasn't looking for anything serious at the time.

In an interview with Karan Johar on Koffee with Karan, Twinkle confessed she had just come out of a long-term relationship and thought of Akshay as a '15-day fling'.

'I had come out of a long-term relationship and wanted to have a fling. There he was -- six feet of chocolate ice cream. So I decided I'm going to have a fling with him, and it was going to last 15 days because that was the outdoor (shooting duration).

'I ran out of books in Calgary (Canada). There was no TV and I was really bored. And there he was. So, it was kind of perfect,' Twinkle had said.

Twinkle's Acting Career and the '12 Flop' Remark

Twinkle made her debut in 1995's Barsaat. As Rajesh Khanna and Dimple Kapadia's daughter, she held a lot of promise.

Unfortunately, her career failed to take off.

Akshay once joked that Twinkle had '12 flops in a row' before she quit acting.

Her last film was 2001's Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega.

This week, she's all set to make a screen comeback after a successful career as an author, this time on a talk show with Kajol called Too Much, which will stream on Amazon Prime Video.

Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff