Ajay Devgn

Ajay Devgn, born Vishal Veeru Devgan, is an Indian actor, director and producer known for his work in Hindi cinema across action, drama and comedy.^[2] Born on 2 April 1969 into a filmmaking family, he debuted in 1991 with the action romance Phool Aur Kaante, which won him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut, and has since built one of the longest and most commercially consistent careers in the industry.^[2] He has won two National Film Awards for Best Actor, for Zakhm (1998) and The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002), and owns the production company Ajay Devgn FFilms, which he established in 1999.^[2]

He is closely associated with several long-running franchises, including Golmaal, Singham, Total Dhamaal and Drishyam, and has increasingly worked as a director and producer alongside acting.^[2] In 2026 he has a packed slate: Dhamaal 4 released on 10 July, he took over as host of the true-crime series Crime Patrol from 31 August, and Drishyam 3 is scheduled for release on 2 October 2026, timed to the Gandhi Jayanti holiday weekend.^[4][5][1]

Devgn was born Vishal Veeru Devgan on 2 April 1969 to the stunt choreographer and action director Virender "Veeru" Devgan and the film producer Veena Devgan.^[2] His father worked on more than 200 films as a fight master and action director, including Roti Kapada Aur Makaan and Mr. Natwarlal, and later directed action sequences across several decades of Hindi cinema; he died in 2019.^[3] Growing up around film sets through his father's work gave Devgn an early, informal education in action choreography and filmmaking.^[2]

He studied at Silver Beach High School in Juhu, Mumbai, and later attended Mithibai College.^[2] His cousin, Anil Devgan, also became a film director, and his sisters Kavita and Neelam remained outside the industry.^[3] He began his professional acting career with the 1991 action-romance Phool Aur Kaante opposite Madhoo, a role that announced him as a new action lead and won him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut.^[2]

Through the 1990s Devgn built a reputation first as an action hero in films like Jigar (1992) and Vijaypath (1994), then expanded into dramatic and romantic territory with Ishq (1997) and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), the latter earning him a Filmfare Best Actor nomination.^[2] His performance in Zakhm (1998), playing a man uncovering his late mother's religious identity, won him his first National Film Award for Best Actor.^[2] In 1999 he founded his own production company, Ajay Devgn FFilms, initially producing the commercially unsuccessful Raju Chacha (2000), though the banner would go on to back many of his later successes.^[2]

The 2000s saw him move between genres with acclaimed work in Gangaajal (2003), Yuva (2004) and Omkara (2006), while his portrayal of the revolutionary Bhagat Singh in The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002) brought a second National Film Award for Best Actor.^[2] Director Rohit Shetty's Golmaal series, beginning in 2006, established Devgn as a lead in broad ensemble comedy, a franchise that continued for multiple sequels and ran alongside his more serious dramatic work.^[2] He also built a parallel identity as an action and law-enforcement screen presence through the Singham franchise and films such as Drishyam (2015) and its sequel Drishyam 2 (2022), one of the biggest hits of that year.^[2]

His recent filmography has mixed commercial franchises with period and biographical projects: Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior (2020), Bholaa (2023), Maidaan and Shaitaan (both 2024), and the raid-thriller sequel Raid 2, which became one of his highest-grossing releases since the COVID-19 pandemic.^[2] In 2026 his output has been unusually heavy: the comedy sequel Dhamaal 4 released on 10 July, reuniting him with Riteish Deshmukh and Arshad Warsi, and he took over as host of Sony Entertainment Television's long-running true-crime series Crime Patrol starting 31 August.^[5][4] Drishyam 3 is scheduled for a 2 October 2026 release, coinciding with the Gandhi Jayanti holiday, while De De Pyaar De 2 and Son of Sardar 2 also released earlier in the year to mixed results.^[1] He has also been announced for the action film Chauhaan, set for an October 2027 release, revealed on the anniversary of his late father's birthday; the teaser shows him in a militarised role set against the backdrop of Jammu and Kashmir.^[6] Taken together, his 2026 schedule, spanning comedy, a true-crime hosting role, and a major franchise instalment, reflects the breadth he has maintained across more than three decades in the industry.^[1]

Devgn began a relationship with the actress Kajol while the two were co-starring in Gundaraj (1995), and the couple married on 24 February 1999.^[2] They have two children, a daughter, Nysa, who has largely stayed out of the public eye while studying abroad, and a son, Yug.^[2] Kajol, from the Mukherjee-Samarth family of Hindi cinema, has won seven Filmfare Awards in her own right and continues to act alongside running the family's other ventures, including a managerial role at Devgn Entertainment and Software Ltd.^[2]

In August 2009, Devgn changed the spelling of his surname from "Devgan" to "Devgn" at his family's request, a change he has said was made for numerological reasons.^[2] He has generally kept a low public profile outside his films, declining to engage extensively on social media; in 2020 his spokesperson publicly denied reports linking him to an altercation in New Delhi, stating he had not visited the city in over a year while filming multiple projects in Mumbai.^[3] He is known within the industry for working closely with family: his late father choreographed action for many of his early films, his cousin Anil Devgan became a director, and his own production house has backed a large share of his recent filmography.^[3]

Beyond acting, Devgn has diversified into production and business investments, including a solar power project in Charanka, Gujarat, developed with producer Kumar Mangat Pathak and the Roha Group, and a stake in the media company Panorama Studio International.^[1] He is also known to be an enthusiast of motorsport and has participated in celebrity car-racing events over the years.^[2] Estimates of his net worth vary considerably by source, from roughly US$50-75 million to figures well over that range in some reports, reflecting different methods of valuing his production company, endorsements and real estate; because such estimates are unaudited, they should be treated as approximate rather than confirmed figures.^[1]