Lara Dutta Once "Bashed Up" Man Who Pinched Her: "Akshay Kumar Pulled Me Away"

Directed by Raj Kanwar, Andaaz features Lara Dutta as Kajal, Priyanka Chopra as Jiya, and Akshay Kumar as Raj

Lara Dutta is a star who doesn't shy away from sharing her personal struggles. Recently, the actress opened up about an incident when she faced eve-teasing during the music release event of her Bollywood debut, Andaaz. In a conversation with Hauterrfly, Lara shared, “I've faced a lot of eve-teasing incidents of course, and I've also talked about them. During the music release of my debut film Andaaz, Priyanka (Chopra), Akshay (Kumar), and I went to Rhythm House at Chandni Chowk in Delhi. I was wearing a sari. As we were trying to get into Rhythm House, a huge crowd had erupted since Miss World (Priyanka) and Miss Universe were coming together on screen for the first time, and there was Akshay Kumar.”

Lara Dutta continued, “So someone pinched me. I realised something's wrong, and probably due to my army background training, I pulled him out and he fell down on the road. But then I bashed him up so badly, in a sari. Akshay got very worried, and he pulled me away from him, and said, ‘What are you doing? You're an actor now. You can't be doing all this' (Laughs).” 

Directed by Raj Kanwar, Andaaz features Lara Dutta as Kajal, Priyanka Chopra in the role of Jiya, and Akshay Kumar portraying Raj. Released in 2003, the movie completed two decades last year. To mark the 20th anniversary, Lara shared a poster of the film and wrote a warm note for her co-stars. The actress said, “And just like that…It's been 20 years. What an incredible, exhilarating journey. Always grateful. First of all, to the audience and fans! To Suneel Darshan for offering me my first film and being the wonderful, cultured, caring person he is. My dearest Raj ji for being the most patient teacher. My forever most handsome, most fun, always there for me Akshay Kumar for just being who he is.”