How Akshay Kumar and Shilpa Shetty Nearly Reached the Mandap — Until Parental Conditions Changed Everything

kshay Kumar and Shilpa Shetty’s romance in the late 1990s was one of Bollywood’s most talked-about relationships. According to filmmaker Suneel Darshan, who worked closely with both actors at the time, the pair had reached a point where marriage was being seriously discussed.

In a recent conversation, Darshan recalled that the relationship came under strain when Shilpa’s parents set certain conditions before agreeing to the match. While he refrained from revealing the exact nature of those conditions, he described them as assurances that any protective parents would naturally want for their daughter. However, Darshan admitted that he personally felt the demands were excessive and ultimately became a turning point in the relationship.

He also shared an intriguing detail: around that period, an astrologer connected to Rajesh Khanna — Twinkle Khanna’s father — had predicted that Akshay would one day marry Twinkle. At the time, Darshan had dismissed it, since Akshay and Twinkle were not close and had “nothing to do with each other.” Looking back now, he finds the coincidence striking.

Darshan revealed that the breakup happened shortly before filming Ek Rishta. Despite the end of the relationship, he insisted Akshay was not heartbroken. In fact, the actor was fully immersed in some of the biggest projects of his early career, including Dhadkan, Hera Pheri, and Ek Rishta, which kept him emotionally steady and professionally focused.

Life eventually moved on for both stars. Akshay Kumar married Twinkle Khanna in 2001, and the couple now shares two children. Shilpa Shetty married businessman Raj Kundra in 2009, and they too are parents to two children. Their lives may have taken different trajectories, but the story of their almost-marriage remains one of Bollywood’s most intriguing “what-ifs.”