Mela turns 25: When flop film led to Akshay Kumar-Twinkle Khanna’s hit love story

It was 25 years ago on this very day that a film was released. It was touted as a big film with Aamir Khan and Twinkle Khanna in the lead and was also supposed to mark Aamir’s brother, Faisal Khan’s grand entry into the Hindi film industry. But, alas, despite all the hype and the expectations, the film was said to have been a box office disaster (even though director Dharmesh Darshan refuted the claims of the film’s failure). However, thanks to the film’s flopping, a hit love story was scripted – the love story of Twinkle Khanna and Akshay Kumar.

While most of those who have watched Koffee With Karan would know, it was because the film had flopped that Twinkle Khanna finally agreed to marry Akshay Kumar, who she was dating back then. As Akshay had himself admitted in an episode of Koffee With Karan, Twinkle had put her everything into the film. To her, it was the big project that would give her due. When it did not work, she not just distanced herself from films and quit acting, but also said yes to Akshay.

Twinkle said, during the episode, “I thought Mela would be the game changer for me. So, I told him I won’t marry him then. I also said that if Mela flops, I will marry you (sic).” Akshay added, “She was very confident about Mela and said that if the film didn’t work, she would get married. Fortunately, for me, Mela flopped, and we got married.”

Here is a song from Mela:

Twinkle often makes fun of Mela. In a separate event, she also joked that once Aamir Khan ‘almost slapped’ her because he thought she was not serious about the film. Twinkle Khanna, while speaking to Karan Johar at the event, said that once Aamir asked her, “Why are you doing like this? Why are you not focusing on the film?” When she admitted that she was thinking about Akshay Kumar, he almost slapped her. Aamir quickly added that he would never behave that way and believed that Twinkle was exaggerating.

Mela was released on January 7, 2000.