Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar has been granted Indian citizenship, years after his Canadian citizenship came under intense scrutiny. The actor took to social media on Independence Day to share the news. “My heart and citizenship is now Indian,” wrote Kumar on X, formerly Twitter.

Akshay had lost his Indian citizenship 12 years ago when he was granted Canadian citizenship by the Conservative government in 2011 as part of improving ties with India in the field of culture and cinema. Though he applied for Indian citizenship in 2019, owing to the pandemic constraints the process got delayed.

The actor had revealed he decided to shift to Canada when his films were failing at the box office. “India is everything to me. Whatever I am today is because of this country. And I am grateful to have got the opportunity to give back. In the 90s my career was going badly. At least 15 of my films bombed at the box office,” the actor had said, adding he moved to Canada since one of his friends were residing there. “Soon after two of my films hit gold at the box office. So my friend told me to go back to India and continue my acting career. I got a few films. I even forgot that I had a passport. And I never thought of changing that passport,” said the actor.

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