Akshay Kumar Biography

Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia, which is Akshay Kumar's real name, was born in Amritsar and his father was a military officer. From his childhood days, he was interested in performing and dancing. He lived in Chandni Chowk in Delhi and then moved to Koliwada in Mumbai which was a Punjabi locality. He obtained a black belt in taekwondo and worked as a chef while learning martial arts in Thailand. He worked at a travel agency in Kolkata when he returned to India and then moved to Mumbai to teach martial arts when a student suggested him to get into modeling and then acting.

Akshay Kumar Childhood Photos

Akshay Kumar was born in Amritsar to military officer Hari Om Bhatia and Aruna Bhatia, who also gave birth to a daughter, Alka Bhatia who is now married to the business tycoon Surendra Hiranandani and has produced a Bollywood film called 'Fugly'. He lived with his family in Delhi and later moved to Mumbai for higher education. He had been recognized as a performer and dancer at an early age. When he was a teenager, he confessed to his father about his dream of becoming an actor.

Akshay Kumar Family Photos

Twice after being engaged to Twinkle Khanna, the daughter of actors Rajesh Khanna and Dimple Kapadia, he eventually married her on 17 January 2001. They have two children, a son named Aarav and a daughter named Nitara. He keeps his children away from the media in hopes of giving them a normal childhood. Akshay has also supported his wife Twinkle Khanna's books under the pen name Mrs.FunnyBones titled 'The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad' and 'Mrs. FunnyBones' and was also present at the book launch.

They live in a house that faces the Juhu beach in Mumbai and Twinkle Khanna has designed the interiors herself.

Akshay Kumar's House

After Akshay returned to Mumbai to teach martial arts, one of his students recommended him to get into modeling. After a few photo-shoots, Akshay realized that he is making more money with a few days of modeling when compared to teaching martial arts for the whole month. One day, after missing a flight for a photo-shoot in Bangalore, he went to a film studio and was signed as the lead actor in the film ‘Deedar’.

Even though he signed 'Deedar', Akshay Kumar's debut film was 'Saugandh' in 1991. In the following year, he played the lead role in Abbas-Mustan’s ‘Khiladi’ which is considered to be his breakthrough role. His film 'Deedar' was finally released in 1992. In 1994, he played a police inspector in ‘Main Khiladi Tu Anari’ and ‘Mohra’ which were two of the highest grossing Hindi films of that year. In the same year, he starred in ‘Yeh Dillagi’ opposite Kajol for which he received the nomination for Best Actor at the Filmfare Awards and Star Screen Awards. This, along with a few more hits like ‘Elaan’ and ‘Suhaag’ promoted Akshay Kumar as a successful actor with 11 feature films in 1994. In 1995, he starred in ‘Sabse Bada Khiladi’ and the following year in ‘Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi’, both of which were commercially successful, earning him the nickname ‘Khiladi’

Akshay Kumar Khiladi Series

He then faced a setback in his film career with not so successful films like ‘Jaanwar’ and ‘International Khiladi’. In 2000, he starred in the hit Priyadarshan directed film ‘Hera Pheri’ alongside Suneil Shetty and Paresh Rawal which proved to be a turning point in his career and established him as a comedy actor, forming Akshay Kumar's hit relationship with Priyadarshan. In the same year, he starred in ‘Dhadkan’ for which he received critical acclaim. In 2001, he played the villain in ‘Ajnabee’ for which he received his first Filmfare Award and an IIFA award for Performance in a Negative Role which started Akshay's love for playing villainous roles. In 2002, he played a blind man in ‘Aankhein’ alongside Amitabh Bachchan, Paresh Rawal, and Arjun Rampal, both the film and his performance were critically acclaimed. In 2004, he played a corrupt cop who changes himself in Rajkumar Santoshi’s ‘Khakee’ which received positive reviews. He was also nominated for a Filmfare Award for this role. Next, he starred in David Dhawan's ‘Mujhse Shaadi Karogi’, a romantic comedy, along with Salman Khan and Priyanka Chopra for which he received his third nomination for the Filmfare for Best Supporting Actor as well as a nomination for Filmfare for Best Comic role. He ended the year with his film ‘Aitraaz’, which according to him is his boldest film ever.

In 2005, Akshay decided to take a break from action movies and starred in a family drama ‘Waqt: The Race Against Time’ and a comedy ‘Garam Masala’, both of which gained positive reviews with Garam Masala earning him his second Filmfare award, for best comedian. In 2006, he starred in ‘Phir Hera Pheri’ a sequel to Hera Pheri which became a massive box-office success. 2007 turned out to be his best year in the industry with four massive hits: ‘Namastey London’ for which he received a Filmfare nomination, ‘Heyy Babyy’ and ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa’, starring alongside Vidya Balan in both of them, and ‘Welcome’ alongside Katrina Kaif. In 2008, he starred in ‘Tashan’ which was the most anticipated release of the year and ‘Singh is Kinng’ which was the highest grossing film that year. In 2009, he starred in films like ‘8 x 10 Tasveer’, ‘Chandni Chowk to China’, ‘Kambakkht Ishq', ‘Blue’ and ‘De Dana Dan’, all of which received mixed reviews. In 2010 he starred in the multistarrer film ‘Housefull’ with Deepika Padukone which had the second highest weekend collection for that year. He ended the year with ‘Tees Maar Khan’ which did not perform well at the box office. In 2011, he starred in ‘Thank you’, ‘Patiala House’ and ‘Desi Boyz’, all of which received mixed reviews.

He started the year 2012 with ‘Housefull 2’ a sequel to 'Housefull' which was a success at the box office. His next film was ‘Rowdy Rathore’ in which he played a double role alongside Sonakshi Sinha. His next film, ‘OMG: Oh my God’ was a critical and box office success. In the same year, he did the film 'Joker' which was publicized as his 100th film but Akshay later clarified that he had already crossed the 100 film landmark. In 2013, he starred in ‘Special 26’ which received great reviews and a moderate box office performance. He also starred in ‘Once Upon a Time in Mumbai Dobaara!’ in which he played Dawood Ibrahim which was the first Hindi film to be shot in Oman. In 2014, he worked in hit films like ‘Its Entertainment’, ‘Holiday’ and ‘Boss’. He came out with three box office and critical hits in 2015, namely ‘Baby’, ‘Gabbar Is Back’ and ‘Brothers’. 2016 also turned out to be a successful year for him with films like the multistarrer ‘Housefull 3’, ‘Airlift’ and ‘Rustom’ which was his silver jubilee hit film, making Akshay one of the few actors to have 25 hits in their career. Both 'Airlift' and 'Rustom' were patriotic films based on real life incidences. In 2017 he turned into a singer for his film 'Toilet: Ek Prem Katha' which became his 8th 100 crore film and his most successful film till date.

Akshay Kumar’s Highest Box-Office Grossers

Akshay is now one of the few hit count actors who has earned Rs. 2000 crore, beating Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan when it comes to film profits and the actor with the highest number of movies. He is a part of  ‘2.0’ with Rajnikanth which is a sequel to the 2010 film ‘Robot’ and Akshay Kumar's first South Indian film and has various other films under production, making him Bollywood's busiest star.

Throughout his acting career, Akshay Kumar has been nominated for his versatile roles and won many awards, but the actor is one of the stars that do not believe in award functions. Here is a list of some of the prominent awards he has won.

Akshay Kumar was honored by The University of Windsor with the Honorary Doctorate for his work in Bollywood in 2008 when he also took up Canadian citizenship, and due to the fact that India does not allow dual citizenship, Akshay is now considered a Canadian actor. He was also awarded the prestigious Padma Shree award and the Rajiv Gandhi Award by the Government of India. In 2008, he was named the Sexiest man alive by People magazine, India. The Asian Awards honored Akshay Kumar in 2011 for his excellent contribution to cinema. In 2017, he was given the National Award for Best Actor for the film ‘Rustom’ which was based on the real-life Nanavati trials in which he played the role of an Indian Navy officer and also produced the film.

He has been honored with “Katana”, the highest Japanese honor and a sixth degree black belt in Kuyukai Gojuryu Karate. He was one of the 15 celebrities who were invited to be a torch-bearer at the 2009 Olympics rally to Canada. In 2012, he inaugurated the 43rd Indian Film Festival in Goa. In 2013, he was named the Readers Choice Style Icon of the year.

Along with acting, Akshay Kumar has also ventured into films of different languages as a Producer. He owns two production houses, ‘Hari Om Productions’ which is named after his father, and ‘Grazing Goat Pictures’ which mainly focuses on regional films. With these two companies, he has co-produced films like ‘Singh is King’, ‘OMG: Oh My God’ ‘Airlift’, etc.

In 2014, Akshay Kumar decided to produce a television show 'Jamai Raja’ which ran for three years.