Akshay Kumar On His Canadian Passport: 'I Thought About Moving There'

Actor Akshay Kumar, who has had three flops this year including 'Raksha Bandhan', 'Samrat Prithviraj' and 'Bachchhan Paandey', is often trolled on the internet for holding Canadian citizenship, and this issue is usually brought up when Akshay promotes national causes. The superstar has finally addressed the issue and admitted that while he holds Canadian citizenship, he pays his taxes in India.

“I have a passport. What is a passport? It is a document used to travel from one country to another. See I am an Indian, I pay all my taxes and pay them here. I have a choice to pay it there as well but I pay them in my country. I work in my country. A lot of people say things and they are allowed to. To them, I would just like to say that I am an Indian, and I will always be an Indian," he told Lallantop.

Akshay also added that he “is an Indian, from India, and will always remain so.” He recalled that he got his Canadian citizenship at a time when his films had stopped working and he was thinking about moving to Canada. “A few years ago, my films were not working. Almost 14-15 films had not worked so I thought I should probably move elsewhere and work there,” he said.

The 54-year-old says that one of his friends lived in Canada and suggested that the actor too should move there if he is not finding success in India. “A lot of people move there for work, but they are still Indians. So I also thought that if destiny is not supporting me here then I should do something about it. I went there, applied for it (the citizenship) and got it,” he said.

Akshay said that soon after this, he began experiencing professional success again, and he decided that he should stay back. “Then I thought that I will stay in my country, never thought about moving again,” he recalled.

Akshay had previously shared that he is in the process of applying for an Indian passport. At the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2019, he said, “I have now applied for the passport. I am an Indian and it hurts me that I am asked to prove that every time.”