Akshay Kumar is an Indian actor, television presenter, and film producer who works in Hindi-language films. He had a minor role in the 1987 Indian film Aaj.[1][2] He debuted in a leading role with the film Saugandh (1991) before his breakthrough with Khiladi (1992), first film of the Khiladi series.[3][4] In 1994, Kumar featured in 14 releases, including the successful Elaan, Mohra, Main Khiladi Tu Anari, Suhaag and the romantic drama Yeh Dillagi, which earned him a Filmfare Award for Best Actor nomination. He also found success with Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi (1996) and Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), which earned him a Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination.[5] However, several other of his 1990s releases performed poorly at the box office, leading to a brief setback in his film career.[6][7][8][9][10]
The 1999 hit crime drama Jaanwar marked Kumar's comeback.[6][11] His next films Hera Pheri (2000), Dhadkan (2000) and Ajnabee (2001) were well received. He played a negative role in the latter, winning the Filmfare Best Villain Award and then appeared in Andaaz (2003), Aitraaz (2004), Khakee (2004) and Aan: Men at Work (2004) and Waqt (2005).[2][12] In this period, Kumar also proved himself as a great comic actor when he featured in financially successful comedies like Mujhse Shaadi Karogi (2004), Garam Masala (2005), Family: Ties of Blood (2006) and Bhagam Bhag (2006), Phir Hera Pheri (2006), Namastey London (2007), Heyy Babyy (2007), Welcome (2007), Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007), Singh Is Kinng (2008), Housefull (2010) and Tees Maar Khan (2010). He won the Filmfare Best Comedian Award for Garam Masala.[13][2][12] In 2004, he presented the television series Seven Deadly Arts with Akshay Kumar.[14][15] In 2008, he founded the Hari Om Entertainment production company,[16] and hosted the first season of the reality game show Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi. Next year he was honoured with the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award, for his services to the Indian film industry.[17][18] Kumar hosted the first season of MasterChef India in 2010. In 2011 he founded another production company Grazing Goat Pictures,[19] and produced the Indo-Canadian hockey-based film Breakaway, which became the highest grossing cross-cultural film at the Canadian box office.[20]
Kumar again conquered the domestic box office in 2012 with his hit masala film Rowdy Rathore, the comedies Housefull 2 and Khiladi 786, and the satire OMG – Oh My God! with the former two being his first films to enter 100 Crore Club.[21][22]
Shortly thereafter, he established a great box office pull with multiple diverse successful projects like the heist film Special 26 (2013), the action thrillers Holiday (2014) and Airlift (2016), the spy drama Baby (2015), the masala film Gabbar Is Back (2015), the comedies Singh Is Bliing (2015) and Housefull 3 (2016), the crime thriller Rustom (2016), the dramas Jolly LLB 2 (2017), Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (2017) and Padman (2018), the sports film Gold (2018) and the war film Kesari (2019); for Rustom, he won the National Film Award for Best Actor.[23][24][25][26] He hosted Dare 2 Dance in 2014 and debuted in Tamil cinema with a negative role in the expensive sci-fi extravaganza 2.0 (2018) which is the fifth highest-grossing Indian film.[27] In 2019 he delivered four consecutive 200 Crore Club films with Mission Mangal, Housefull 4, Good Newwz, and Kesari. This was followed by a steady career decline, with the exception of the action film Sooryavanshi (2021) and the comedy-drama OMG 2 (2023).
- ^ Mohammad, Khalid (22 March 2007). "Akshay Kumar is a Punjabi by pnature". Hindustan Times. Mumbai. Archived from the original on 25 December 2013. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
- ^ a b c Britannica Book of the Year 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. p. 95. ISBN 978-1-61535-366-8. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014.
- ^ Trisha (8 December 2012). "Movie review: Khiladi 786 is a leave-your-brains-at-home kinda comedy". Firstpost. Network 18. Archived from the original on 27 February 2015. Retrieved 3 December 2022.
- ^ "Akshay Kumar- The Khiladi superstar". Zee News (Essel Group). Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
- ^ "Happy Birthday Akshay Kumar: Jolly@49". NDTV. 9 September 2016. Archived from the original on 9 October 2016. Retrieved 7 October 2016.
- ^ a b Tuteja, Joginder (25 August 2011). "Akshay Kumar celebrates 20 years in Bollywood – Special Feature: Part 2". Bollywood Hungama. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
- ^ Srinivasan, V S (11 August 1998). "Akki up front". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
- ^ Jain, Priyanka (5 June 2012). "I don't wallow in self-pity when my films flop: Akshay Kumar". Hindustan Times. Mumbai. Archived from the original on 11 January 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
- ^ Ashraf, Syed Firdaus (30 November 2005). "Akshay Kumar: The new Comedy King?". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
- ^ Singh, Prashant (5 June 2012). "Bollywood actors are now back to basics!". Hindustan Times. Mumbai. Archived from the original on 2 November 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
- ^ "Happy Birthday Akshay Kumar: Bollywood's Khiladi turns 46". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 10 August 2014. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
- ^ a b Verma, Sukanya (5 September 2007). "40 things you didn't know about Akki". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 19 February 2008. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
- ^ "Nominees of 50th Filmfare Awards- The 51st Filmfare Awards". Indiatimes. Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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- ^ Shah, Kunal M (29 August 2011). "I am kind to everyone, but trust no one: Akshay Kumar". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 17 September 2015. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
- ^ Akhtar, Shabina (20 May 2012). "Action Stations!". The Telegraph. ABP Group. Archived from the original on 10 August 2014. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
- ^ "President presents Padma awards". The Hindu. The Hindu Group. 1 April 2009. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
- ^ Press Trust of India (26 January 2009). "2009 Padma Award Winners". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
- ^ Lalwani, Vickey (28 November 2011). "Akshay Kumar gets a Grazing Goat". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 22 June 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
- ^ Times News Network (29 December 2011). "Akshay's Production Breakaway breaks records in Canada". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 13 September 2015. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
- ^ Indo-Asian News Service (4 October 2012). "Barfi! joins INR1 billion club". The Express Tribune. Lakson Group. Archived from the original on 9 August 2014. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
- ^ "Filmfare Awards 2012 – Nominations List". Indiatimes. 15 January 2013. Archived from the original on 12 August 2014. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
- ^ Gupta, Priya (23 June 2014). "Holiday enters the 100 crore club!". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
- ^ "Akshay Kumar upcoming movies 2016-2017-2018 with release dates". Young Bharat. Archived from the original on 19 October 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
- ^ Jha, Subhash K. (14 January 2017). "Akshay Kumar snubbed again because he won't dance?". Deccan Chronicle. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
- ^ "Akshay Kumar on National Award win for Rustom: I've never cheated to win an award". Hindustan Times. 7 April 2017. Archived from the original on 10 October 2022. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
- ^ Goyal, Divya (29 November 2018). "Akshay Kumar, Newcomer To Tamil Cinema, Lists What Bollywood Can Learn From South". NDTV.com. Retrieved 19 November 2020.