Cinema VinesDia Mirza Rekhi, who is celebrating 25 years in Bollywood, recently reflected on the pivotal role that veteran actor Anil Kapoor played in launching her career. Speaking about the milestone, the 44‑year‑old said Kapoor had met her immediately after her Asia‑Pacific pageant, and that he and Anupam Kher were eager for her to star in the film they were working on. “He met me right after my Asia Pacific pageant. He and Anupam Kher were very keen that I do the film that they were working on, and they were the ones who helped me get my first film,” Mirza told reporters, adding that “in a way, for good or bad AK is responsible for me being in films.”
Mirza’s current slate is busy: she has just released Ikka with Sunny Deol and Akshaye Khanna, appeared in a cameo opposite Kapoor in Alia Bhatt’s Alpha, and is set to launch the web series Operation Safed Sagar next month. The actress recalled the moment she first met Kapoor in the lobby of a hotel in Hyderabad, describing his words as a turning point. “You are so beautiful, you have so much grace, you would be so beautiful on screen, you must become an actor,” he told her, a statement that she credits with opening the door to her film career.
When asked about her recent collaboration with Kapoor, Mirza said it felt like a “beautiful full‑circle moment.” She highlighted the emotional resonance of working with him 25 years after their first encounter. “It felt like such a beautiful full circle moment to be in a movie with him 25 years on from the first time I met him outside in the lobby of a hotel in Hyderabad,” she said.
Mirza also praised her co‑stars in Ikka. She lauded Sunny Deol’s “unprecedented level of decency” and shared that she had previously approached Akshaye Khanna to act in a film she was producing, an opportunity that did not materialise. “I’ve done some films with his father (Vinod Khanna) and we shared a very special bond and even Rahul (Khanna, Akshaye’s brother) I have known. I’d actually approached Akshaye to act in a film that I was producing but that didn’t work out,” she explained. Despite enjoying her scenes with Khanna, Mirza admitted that slapping him on screen terrified her. “I was terrified, and then Sunny sir was quick to jump in and say, ‘listen, you’re playing my wife, so you shouldn’t be scared’,” she laughed, noting that she was initially worried about the fan following of the Khanna family.
