British actor Alyy Khan, who is of Pakistani origin but has worked primarily in India, recalled stories about his Bollywood contemporaries such as Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in a podcast appearance. While chatting about his experience working on the hit film Don 2, Alyy was asked about his female co-stars, Priyanka Chopra and Lara Dutta.
Podcast host Nadir Ali asked if they’re actually as pretty in real life as they seem on screen. Alyy smiled and said in Urdu, “They’re very hard-working…” Asked if he saw them up close, ‘without makeup’, the actor said that of course he had, and then delivered an unprompted speech about the use of botox and fillers among actors.
“Bhaijaan, remember one thing,” he said, “If Wasim Akram can alter his entire face, can’t these people? Even in our country, name one person who hasn’t had work done on their face. These are modern times, it’s your right as an actor to have wrinkles removed, get fillers, botox, whatever. These people have all the money in the world, don’t you think they get work done?”
Asked if they’re all ‘plastic’, he continued, “They’ve all had some work done. They’re all over 50, some are over 55. Look at Shah Rukh’s body and face. Look at Priyanka, she’d be in her 40s, and she has maintained herself, her fitness, diet, health… And cosmetics, of course.”
He narrated a story about working with Shah Rukh on Don 2, and said that after pack-up every day, they’d go up to his room to play FIFA on a PlayStation, eat and drink. Hrithik Roshan had dropped by for a small part, but he never partied with them. In fact, Alyy said, Hrithik would first head to the gym, even if it was 2 am, and work out for some time before doing anything else. “All of them are very disciplined,” Alyy said.
Alyy Khan recently appeared in the Apple TV+ series Shantaram, and has three Indian projects lined up — The Archies, directed by Zoya Akhtar; Tehran, starring John Abraham; and the Hindi remake of The Good Wife, starring Kajol.
