In the wake of producer Kumar Mangat Pathak’s recent revelations about his difficult experience with Akshaye Khanna—an ordeal that led to Khanna’s replacement by Jaideep Ahlawat in Drishyam 3—writer-director Manish Gupta has come forward with his own account of working with the actor during the making of Section 375.Manish Gupta revealed that Akshaye Khanna initially signed on for Section 375 in 2017 with a contract fixing his fee at Rs. 2 crores, along with an advance of Rs. 21 lakhs. However, the actor abruptly gave up the dates he had committed to Gupta’s film to shoot The Accidental Prime Minister in London, leaving the director and his crew idle for nearly six months.
The situation worsened when Akshaye returned and demanded Rs. 3.25 crores—significantly more than the agreed amount—breaching the original contract. Gupta also alleged that Khanna sought complete creative control over the film, insisting on having everything done his way. Standing firm against what he described as “unreasonable behaviour,” Gupta refused to yield to the actor’s demands.
According to Gupta, Akshaye Khanna’s discomfort with taking direction from him led the actor to pressure producer Kumar Mangat Pathak to remove Gupta as director and hand over control of the film to him. Instead of supporting his director, Mangat allegedly sided with Akshaye, removing Gupta from the project and confiscating his fully written script and hard drive containing three years of pre-production work.
Gupta issued legal notices to both Akshaye Khanna and Kumar Mangat Pathak and was poised to take the matter to the Bombay High Court. However, an out-of-court settlement was reached with the producer. Ironically, while Mangat currently faces legal battles with Akshaye over Drishyam 3, he has also taken legal action against the actor.
Despite criticizing Khanna’s professionalism, Gupta acknowledged the actor’s talent but expressed disappointment over how he was treated during Section 375 the film that marked Khanna’s comeback after nearly a decade. Gupta emphasized that he retains full writing credits for the film’s story, screenplay, and dialogues, underscoring that the creative vision behind Section 375 was solely his own.
This revelation adds another layer to the ongoing saga involving Akshaye Khanna’s professional conduct and the challenges faced by filmmakers in balancing creative control and star power in Bollywood.
