Akshay Kumar on citizenship row : Have applied for Indian passport

Declaring that he never thought he needed a document to prove his Indian-ness, Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar on Friday said he is replacing his Canadian passport with an Indian one following a controversy over his citizenship.

The 52-year-old actor, who was in the headlines for his interview with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April, was the subject of intense speculation about his citizenship after he did not vote in Mumbai during the Lok Sabha polls.

Akshay, in a statement at the time, had said he never denied that he held a Canadian passport.

Akshay opened up about the circumstances behind him getting a Canadian passport at the HT Leadership Summit.

"There was a time when 14 films of mine flopped and I thought that I might have to take up something else to support myself.

One of my closest friend stays in Canada and he asked me to come there. He said we will work together on something. He is also Indian but stays there. Then I started my process, got my passport and other stuff because I thought my career has ended.

I won't get work here anymore. It was just that my 15th film worked and after that I never looked back. I kept going on and on. But I never thought of getting my passport replaced," said Akshay.

Following the controversy, he decided to apply for an Indian passport. "I have now applied for it because I feel sad that people have stuck to this point that I have to show my passport to prove that I'm an Indian. It hurts me. So I don't want to give anyone an opportunity and so I have applied for it," he said.

"My wife (Twinkle Khanna) is Indian and my son (Aarav) is Indian. Everyone in my family is Indian. I pay all my taxes here. My life is here but some people want to say something, so it's ok," he added.