On the occasion of Indian independence Day, Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar announced that he has got his Indian citizenship.
Taking to social media, Kumar shared a photo of his hand holding the official documents of Indian citizenship. The picture shows a red coloured folder with ‘Government of India Ministry of Home Affairs, Certificate of Citizenship’ printed on it.
He also gave a sneak-peek into the certificate which shows his name as — Akshay Hariom Bhatia — and his father’s and mother’s names. It also mentions his wife's name — Twinkle Khanna, the actress and author. Kumar's place of birth is mentioned as Delhi, and his previous nationality as Canadian.
The certificate read: “This is to certify that the person whose particulars are given below has been registered as a citizen of India under the provision of section 5(1) (g) of the Citizenship Act, 1955.”
Kumar captioned the post as: “Dil aur citizenship, dono Hindustani. ("heart and citizenship are both Indian") Happy Independence Day! Jai Hind!”
More than a decade ago, the Canadian government granted citizenship to Kumar. The actor had received an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. In a 2010 interview with the Economist, he claimed he had “dual citizenship”. In December 2019, he had stated that he has applied for an Indian passport and plans to give up his Canadian citizenship.
Kumar was last seen in the Hindi movie ‘OMG 2’. His upcoming projects include ‘The Great Indian Rescue’, ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’, ‘Hera Pheri 3’, and an untitled remake of the Tamil superhit ‘Soorarai Pottru’, based on Indian aviation pioneer Captain GR Gopinath’s biography.
