India, May 29 -- Actor Akshay Kumar fiercely defended his friend and co-star Paresh Rawal, despite suing the latter for a sudden exit from his production Hera Pheri 3. At the trailer launch event for his upcoming film, HT City asked Akshay (57) about how fans were calling Paresh (69) "foolish" for walking out on the cult franchise. "Using this kind of word like 'foolish' for my co-star - I would not appreciate that. That's not right. We have worked with him for the last 35 years. We are very good friends, and he is a great actor. I admire him a lot," he told us. Adding that the Rs.25 crore legal matter is subjudice, he stated, "Jo bhi kuch hai, I don't think this is a place to talk about this. Whatever has happened is a serious matter and will be handled by the court. So, I don't think I will speak about this." While the reason for Paresh's exit is still not clear, he wrote on X that he had returned his signing amount and his lawyer had sent "an appropriate response" to the producers. htc...