{"id":2430813,"date":"2026-05-25T00:28:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T00:28:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2430813"},"modified":"2026-05-25T00:28:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T00:28:35","slug":"but-i-dont-go-around-offending-people-twinkle-khanna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/but-i-dont-go-around-offending-people-twinkle-khanna\/","title":{"rendered":"But I don’t go around offending people: Twinkle Khanna"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Self-aware, sharp and gently irreverent, she moves between insight and humour without missing a beat. This World Book Day (April 23), author-filmmaker Twinkle Khanna offers Medha Shri Dahiya<\/a> a glimpse into the perceptive lens through which she sees the world.<\/p>\n

Twinkle is known for writing Mrs Funnybones<\/a> (2015), The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad (2016), Pyjamas Are Forgiving (2018), and Welcome to Paradise (2023). Excerpts:<\/p>\n

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Twinkle Khanna says her father (late veteran actor Rajesh Khanna), instilled a love for language in her. She shares, ‘I have a distinct memory when I said, \u2018Will you pick me up from school?\u2019 And he said, \u2018Are you a pickup? I will fetch you from school.\u2019 That kind of just set my parameters of what language can do.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

You are known to put your views bluntly. If your next book offended everyone a little, would you consider that success?<\/strong>
I have a feeling that it will offend quite a few people, but my job is not to go around offending people. My job is to make people reflect on the things that are visible. But our own conditioning blinds us to those factors. It might make people uncomfortable and they might call it offensive… (But) I think about how I will unravel the layers of conditioning, not just around them but also around me because I also find my way through life as I write.<\/p>\n

What is the most uncomfortable truth that you\u2019ve written that has made people squirm or has caused you some relationships? <\/strong>
(Laughs) You keep saying it about me like it is a point I make to make people uncomfortable or squirm. It\u2019s not like I\u2019m running around with a can of Hit in my hand and spraying it on all the roaches in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Absolutely not! But that\u2019s the thing about a lot of successful writers, right?<\/strong>
Ha ha ha<\/p>\n

So, what is the most uncomfortable truth you\u2019ve written that made people squirm or has made you rethink your stance?<\/strong>
Once in an interview in the United Kingdom, I said sanitary pads were taxed and Viagra was tax-free because policies were made by 65-year-old men. I was really talking about UK because in India Viagra was also taxed. But, when I came back to India, a few politicians did not come for the premiere of Pad\u2009Man (2018 film produced by Khanna) because they felt it was targeting them because, unfortunately, they were also 65.<\/p>\n

You were an actor and now you are a celebrated author. What have the books given you that cinema didn\u2019t?<\/strong>
I don\u2019t think either of them have given me anything. It is what I was able to give that medium, and books have always been my life and\u2026 actually so has cinema. Both of them have very important places in my life. So much of what I write has been because of the experiences that I also had as a young actor, whether it was seeing the basic inequalities between men and women, which I only realised much later in life.<\/p>\n

I feel that my skill set is more suited to the world of books because, I love the poetry, words, and I love language. It comes a little bit from, perhaps, my father (late veteran actor Rajesh Khanna), because I have a distinct memory when I was very young and I said, \u2018Will you pick me up from school?\u2019 And he said, \u2018Are you a pickup? I will fetch you from school.\u2019 That kind of just set my parameters of what language can do.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And I grew up in a family of readers. My sister (Rinke Khanna) reads more than I do.<\/p>\n

My late uncle read science fiction extensively, and science fiction has shaped my entire perception of life. So when people talk about religion or ideology or borders or race, I\u2019m thinking in my head, I live in a galaxy where there are tentacled creatures who are breathing methane… These little diversities don\u2019t seem to matter.<\/p>\n

Speaking of family, does your husband, actor Akshay Kumar, give suggestions?<\/strong>
This morning, I was discussing the topics I plan to touch upon in my next column, and he (Akshay Kuma<\/a>r) told me, \u2018Mat karna… do not get into this issue\u2019. Mat karna is basically his only and biggest contribution to my writing career (laughs).<\/p>\n

You also mentioned how writing is such a solitary pursuit. After you became a writer, did it alienate you from showbiz because that\u2019s such a social industry?<\/strong>
No, I don\u2019t think. I was pretty much a loner from the beginning. Again, I don\u2019t think of people in binaries, and I don\u2019t want to put myself in a binary either. There is an aspect of me that enjoys books and I\u2019m constantly studying something, like, I\u2019m now pursuing an online course in philosophy because I want to understand a lot more than I do.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s another aspect of me that completely enjoys talking to my friends about frivolous things like handbags and Mahjong, knowing that they\u2019re frivolous, but it gives me a connection and a sense of joy with certain people.<\/p>\n

So both these aspects belong to me.<\/p>\n

And now I\u2019m at a stage in my life where earlier maybe I would shun away this frivolous side and concentrate on the more academic side of my personality. Now I don\u2019t want to do that.<\/p>\n

I want to embrace both because they\u2019re both part of me, and I don\u2019t have anything to prove to anyone that I\u2019m only this one sort of person, because I don\u2019t believe one sort of person exists. None of the characters I write have one facet, they cannot have one dimension\u2026 They will be completely paper thin if they did. So, why am I putting that onus on myself?<\/p>\n

You write about things, but what\u2019s the most bizarre thing that you\u2019ve read about yourself?<\/strong>
The most bizarre thing that I read was that I had some eye operation. I don\u2019t know why it was on some Wikipedia page for the longest time, and I\u2019ve never had an eye operation. Bizarre.<\/p>\n

If Twinkle Khanna the author could meet Twinkle Khanna the 20-year-old what would she say to her?<\/strong>
I would say it all works out in the end! Just keep doing what you\u2019re doing and finish the book you started when you were 18. I\u2019m 52, and that one book I haven\u2019t been able to finish yet.<\/p>\n

Are you planning to finish it?<\/strong>
I\u2019ve tried three times in my life, I\u2019m just unable to write that particular book. Maybe it\u2019s too close to home so my emotions get in the way of transferring that onto the page.<\/p>\n

Any books you\u2019d give 20-year-old Twinkle to read?<\/strong>
Oh! She was reading much more than I do now.<\/p>\n

Will you come back to acting?<\/strong>
I don\u2019t think I will. The camera actually has always terrified me. I am not really happy in the spotlight. It gives me a bit of a sunstroke, let\u2019s put it that way.<\/p>\n

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Give us a reading list or books you recommend.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I would say, Fredrik Backman\u2019s A Man Called Ove<\/i> is a book that I love. Arundhati Roy\u2019s The God of Small Things<\/i> is something that I have read several times and I continue to read it. I read about 5 pages everyday even today\u2026 Kiran Desai\u2019s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunn<\/i>y; Haruki Murakami\u2019s Men Without Women<\/i>; Octavia E Butler writes fantastic feminist science fiction; anything by Ursula Le Guin; short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri… F Scott Fitzgerald, PG Wodehouse… My god! I mean I am standing in front of my bookshelf, so tell me when to stop!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.hindustantimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Self-aware, sharp and gently irreverent, she moves between insight and humour without missing a beat. This World Book Day (April 23), author-filmmaker Twinkle Khanna offers Medha Shri Dahiya a glimpse into the perceptive lens through which she sees the world. Twinkle is known for writing Mrs Funnybones (2015), The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad (2016), Pyjamas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2430814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[25672,476726,476724,476725,373776,476727],"class_list":["post-2430813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-akshay-kumar","tag-author-filmmaker","tag-mrs-funnybones","tag-pad-man","tag-twinkle-khanna","tag-uncomfortable-truth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/But-I-dont-go-around-offending-people-Twinkle-Khanna.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2430813"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2430815,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430813\/revisions\/2430815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2430814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2430813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2430813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2430813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}