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Twinkle Khanna opens up on World Book Day about her writing journey, Akshay Kumar’s reactions, her reading habits and the books that shaped her voice.
Twinkle Khanna spoke about her writing process and reading habits on the occasion of World Book Day.
Twinkle Khanna spoke about her writing process and reading habits on the occasion of World Book Day. The actress-turned-author reflected on how her ideas take shape and how her personal experiences influence what she writes.
During the interaction, she also mentioned how her husband Akshay Kumar reacts to her work. She recalled, “This morning, I was discussing the topics I plan to touch upon in my next column, and he told me, ‘Mat karna…do not get into that issue’. Mat kar is basically his only and biggest contribution to my writing career,” she said.
Twinkle added that while her work may sometimes make people uncomfortable, her intention is not to provoke but to explore ideas. “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.”
She also spoke about her shift from acting to writing, noting that books have always been a constant in her life. “It is what I was able to give that medium, and books have always been my life and actually so has cinema,” she said, adding that her experiences as a young actor also shaped her perspective.
Talking about her interest in language and literature, she said, “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, ‘Will you pick me up from school? And he said, “Are you a pickup? I will fetch you from school. That kind of just set my parameters of what language can do. And I grew up grew up in a family of readers. My sister (Rinkle Khanna) reads more than I do,”
Khanna also shared that she used to read more in her younger years. “Just keep doing what you’re doing and finish the book you started when you were 18. I’m 52, and that one book I haven’t been able to finish yet,” she said, speaking about what she would tell her younger self.
When asked about books she recommends, she listed a mix of authors and titles. “I would say Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove is a book that I love. Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things is something that I have read several times and I continue to read it. Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny: Haruki Murakami’s Men Without Women; 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!”
April 23, 2026, 13:00 IST
