Akshay Kumar

Akshay Kumar, born Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia, is an Indian actor and film producer who has worked in Hindi cinema for over three decades and is widely known by the nickname "Khiladi Kumar".^[1] Born on 9 September 1967, he has appeared in more than 150 films, built a reputation for doing many of his own stunts, and moved comfortably between action thrillers, romantic dramas, slapstick comedies and patriotic historical films.^[1] He is a recipient of the National Film Award for Best Actor, two Filmfare Awards and the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour, which he received in 2009.^[1]

Kumar is also one of the most commercially visible stars in Indian film history. Forbes featured him on its lists of the world's highest-paid celebrities and highest-paid actors every year from 2015 to 2020, and he has been recognised as one of India's largest individual taxpayers.^[1] Beyond acting, he has produced films, hosted television shows and run businesses, and he gave up his Canadian citizenship in August 2023 to regain Indian citizenship.^[1]

His 2026 has been a comeback year. The horror-comedy Bhooth Bangla, released on 17 April 2026, earned about Rs 247 crore worldwide and was described as his first clean hit since OMG 2, while Welcome to the Jungle followed on 26 June 2026.^[2][3] He turned 59 on 9 September 2026.^[1]

Kumar was born Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia on 9 September 1967 into a Punjabi Hindu family. His father, Hari Om Bhatia, came from Amritsar and served as an officer in the Indian Army, while his mother, Aruna Bhatia, had roots in Kashmir.^[1] Sources differ on his exact birthplace: some identify the Chandni Chowk area of Old Delhi, while others, including IMDb, name Amritsar.^[1][8] He grew up in Chandni Chowk before the family moved to Bombay when his father left the army to work as an accountant with UNICEF, and they settled in Koliwada, a Punjabi-dominated neighbourhood in central Mumbai.^[1] He has a sister, Alka Bhatia.^[1]

He was educated at Don Bosco High School in Matunga, where he also began learning karate, and later enrolled at Guru Nanak Khalsa College but dropped out because he was not interested in academics.^[1] With his father's permission he went to Bangkok, where he spent about five years learning Thai boxing (Muay Thai) and worked as a chef and waiter to support himself, having already earned a black belt in taekwondo in India.^[1]

His first jobs after Thailand were varied: he worked at a travel agency in Calcutta, as a hotel chef in Dhaka and selling Kundan jewellery in Delhi before returning to Mumbai to teach martial arts.^[1] A student's father suggested modelling, which led to a furniture showroom shoot and then 18 months as an assistant to photographer Jayesh Sheth while building his first portfolio.^[1] He also worked as a background dancer and made a brief first screen appearance as a karate instructor in Aaj (1987), later choosing the stage name Akshay Kumar after a character played by actor Kumar Gaurav.^[1] According to his own account, he got his first lead role after missing a flight to an advertising shoot and visiting a film studio with his portfolio, where producer Pramod Chakravorty signed him for Deedar (1992).^[1]

Kumar's first release as a lead was Saugandh (1991), but his breakthrough came a year later with the Abbas-Mustan thriller Khiladi (1992), which established him as an action star and spawned a series of films with "Khiladi" in the title.^[1] In 1994 he appeared in eleven films, including Mohra and Main Khiladi Tu Anari, which were among the highest-grossing releases of the year, and the Yash Chopra-produced romance Yeh Dillagi, which brought him his first Best Actor nomination at the Filmfare Awards.^[1] After a commercial slump in the late 1990s, Jaanwar (1999) marked his comeback.^[1]

The turning point of his career as a comedian came with Priyadarshan's Hera Pheri (2000), after which he balanced romances such as Dhadkan, Andaaz and Aitraaz with villain and comic roles.^[1] He won a Filmfare Award for Best Villain for Ajnabee (2001) and another for Best Comedian for Garam Masala (2005).^[1] The year 2007 is often regarded as the best of his career: Namastey London, Heyy Babyy, Bhool Bhulaiyaa and Welcome all became hits.^[1] In 2008 he began hosting Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi, his television debut, and in 2011 he hosted the first Indian season of MasterChef.^[1]

The 2010s saw him pivot towards content-driven and patriotic cinema. After successes in Rowdy Rathore (2012), OMG - Oh My God! (2012), Special 26 (2013) and Holiday (2014), he moved into critically acclaimed roles in Baby (2015), Airlift (2016) and Rustom (2016), the last of which won him the National Film Award for Best Actor.^[1] He also produced and starred in the social-message films Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (2017) and Pad Man (2018), made his Tamil debut in Rajinikanth's 2.0 (2018), and in 2019 had a banner year with Kesari, Mission Mangal, Housefull 4 and Good Newwz.^[1]

From 2022 onward his fortunes dipped sharply. Films such as Bachchhan Paandey, Samrat Prithviraj, Raksha Bandhan, Ram Setu, Selfiee, Mission Raniganj and Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (2024) all failed commercially, with OMG 2 (2023) the main exception.^[1] In 2024 his performance in Sarfira earned a Filmfare Best Actor nomination despite a weak box-office run.^[1] A partial recovery came in 2025, when Housefull 5 and Jolly LLB 3 both became moderate successes.^[1]

In 2026 he returned to form. Bhooth Bangla, a horror-comedy directed by Priyadarshan, reunited the pair for the first time since Khatta Meetha (2010), and the film, in which Kumar plays a dual role, grossed Rs 247.28 crore worldwide to become the sixth-highest-grossing Hindi film of 2026 despite mixed reviews.^[2] Welcome to the Jungle, the third film in the franchise, released on 26 June 2026 to mixed reviews but was reported as a commercial success, and Haiwaan is listed with a release date of 11 September 2026.^[3][7] Alongside films he also began hosting an Indian version of Wheel of Fortune in January 2026, and in February the production extended his run by 25 more episodes.^[1][5]

His upcoming projects include Golmaal 5, scheduled for 8 January 2027, in which he confirmed in March 2026 that he is not the lead, and a new Anees Bazmee comedy with Vidya Balan announced in April 2026 and shot in Kerala.^[6][7][10]

Kumar married the actress and author Twinkle Khanna, daughter of actors Rajesh Khanna and Dimple Kapadia, on 17 January 2001.^[1] They met during a Filmfare magazine photo shoot, and have two children, a son, Aarav, born in 2002, and a daughter, Nitara, born in 2012.^[1] Kumar has said he wants to give his children a "normal childhood" and is known to keep them away from the media.^[1] He has often credited Khanna for his success, and he helped her edit the drafts of her debut book, Mrs Funnybones.^[1] Earlier in the late 1990s he was linked with actresses Raveena Tandon and Shilpa Shetty.^[1]

He is widely known for his fitness and discipline, practising kickboxing, swimming, basketball and parkour, and is a teetotaller.^[1] He holds a sixth-degree black belt in Kuyukai Gojuryu karate, awarded in 2009, and set a Guinness World Record in 2023 for taking 184 selfies in three minutes at a promotional event for Selfiee.^[1]

One of the more discussed aspects of his life has been his citizenship. In 2011 he was granted Canadian citizenship, and in 2019 he said he had applied for an Indian passport; on 15 August 2023, India's Independence Day, he confirmed that he had regained Indian citizenship after renouncing his Canadian one.^[1] In 2026 he also began selling parts of his Mumbai property portfolio, including two apartments in Mulund for about Rs 12.4 crore and several flats in Borivali, according to Business Standard.^[4]

Kumar is regarded as one of Indian cinema's most philanthropic stars. He donated Rs 25 crore to the PM CARES Fund at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, launched the Bharat Ke Veer app in 2017 to channel donations to the families of soldiers killed in service, and has supported flood relief, drought relief and a shelter for transgender people in Chennai.^[1] He was also named the highest advance taxpayer in the Hindi film industry in 2013 and the following years.^[1] Estimates of his net worth vary enormously between publications, from roughly US$230 million to over US$500 million, because each source counts film fees, endorsements, real estate and business stakes differently; because these are unaudited estimates, they should be treated as approximate.^[9]