Salman Khan’s popularity has often led to unforgettable stories, and one such amusing anecdote was shared by Akshay Kumar involving Chunky Panday when they made an appearance together on ‘The Kapil Sharma Show’. Akshay recalled how Chunky cleverly turned Salman’s stardom into a business opportunity while they were touring in South Africa for a stage show.According to Akshay, the show was a huge success, and as one of the organisers, Chunky offered to take Salman shopping afterward. Once they reached a clothing store, Chunky encouraged the superstar to pick out a few outfits, telling him, “Pick 3-4 jeans and 2-3 shirts”.Salman happily selected the clothes he liked. Soon after, the store owner approached him and said, “We want to take a picture with Salman sir.” The actor obliged, posing for photographs with the owner and his family before leaving the shop, unaware of what had happened behind the scenes.Akshay revealed that Salman later discovered the real reason for the shopping trip. A few days after the visit, he learnt that Chunky had reportedly charged the shop owner 20,000 dollars to bring Salman to the store, allowing them to benefit from the superstar’s presence and publicity.Akshay and Chunky have shared screen space in several films over the years, including ‘Aankhen’ (1993), ‘Housefull’ (2010), ‘Housefull 3’ (2016) and ‘Housefull 5’ (2025). On the work front, Akshay was recently seen headlining ‘Welcome to the Jungle’, the latest instalment of the ‘Welcome’ franchise, which released in theatres on June 26.Directed by Ahmed Khan, the comedy features one of the biggest ensemble casts in recent years, with more than 30 actors, including Suniel Shetty, Jackie Shroff, Raveena Tandon, Disha Patani, Jacqueline Fernandez, Arshad Warsi, Paresh Rawal, Rajpal Yadav, Johnny Lever, Aftab Shivdasani, Lara Dutta, Shreyas Talpade, Tusshar Kapoor, Daler Mehndi, Farida Jalal, Krishna Abhishek, Kiku Sharda, Kiran Kumar, Mukesh Tiwari, Yashpal Sharma, Vindu Dara Singh, Nawab Shah, Urvashi Rautela, Puneet Issar, Arjun Firoz Khan, the late Pankaj Dheer, Sudesh Berry, Hemant Pandey, Zakir Hussain, Sayaji Shinde and several others.
