Three Decades, Countless Reinventions and The Evolution of Akshay Kumar

Mumbai: When Akshay Kumar arrived in Hindi cinema with Saugandh in 1991, there was little to suggest that the actor would spend the next three decades making a career out of refusing to stay the same. More than 150 films later, the most interesting thing about his journey is not simply its longevity but the number of times he has changed the definition of an Akshay Kumar film.
The first version was, of course, the Khiladi. Khiladi in 1992 established him as an action hero, and through the 1990s, films such as Mohra, Sabse Bada Khiladi and Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi strengthened that image. He had the physicality, the martial-arts background and the ease with action that made him a natural fit for the era’s testosterone-heavy entertainers. “Khiladi” stopped being merely a film title and became part of his identity.
But staying an action hero was never going to be enough for Akshay. By the end of the 1990s, he had experienced a difficult professional phase, and Hera Pheri in 2000 provided the breakthrough of an entirely different kind. As Raju, he discovered that his physicality could be just as effective when deployed for comedy — a panicked expression could get as big a reaction as a punch. The actor who had spent years being asked to fight suddenly became one of Hindi cinema’s most dependable comic performers.
What followed was not a brief comedy detour but a full reinvention. Mujhse Shaadi Karogi, Garam Masala, Bhagam Bhag, Bhool Bhulaiyaa, Welcome, Singh Is Kinng and Housefull turned comedy into a major pillar of his career. He could play the fool without compromising his star image, and that became one of his greatest strengths. Akshay understood something many leading men don’t: looking ridiculous on purpose on screen can actually make an actor more likeable.
The next shift was towards content and character. Films such as Special 26, Baby, Airlift and Rustom showed that the actor could move away from broad commercial comedy and inhabit more restrained, serious roles. The performances were pitch perfect, winning him critical adulation. Rustom went on to win him the National Film Award for Best Actor.
Then came another interesting phase that led him to use the familiarity of a mainstream star to carry subjects that weren’t traditionally considered commercial. Toilet: Ek Prem Katha took on sanitation, Pad Man addressed menstrual hygiene, while Mission Mangal turned the story of India’s Mars mission into an accessible mainstream entertainer. Akshay didn’t stop making commercial cinema; he simply found ways of putting a social conversation inside it.
His versatility was perhaps most visible in the sheer variety of films he could carry around the same period. In 2019 alone, he had four releases – Kesari, Mission Mangal, Housefull 4 and Good Newwz, spanning historical drama, science-based drama, comedy and a contemporary family entertainer. All four were commercially successful, making that year an extraordinary example of how wide his mainstream appeal had become.
At the a recent conclave this year, he said he reads a script around 100 times before making a film and that this preparation allows projects to be completed in roughly 50-55 days. Of course, the career hasn’t been one uninterrupted winning streak. There have been stretches of experiments that didn’t work and phases when audiences questioned his choices. But the response has generally been to move on rather than retreat. That ability to absorb a setback and turn up for the next film may be one of the least glamorous, but most important, reasons for his longevity.
And now, at a stage when most stars are busy protecting the image that made them famous, Akshay appears increasingly interested in dismantling his. His upcoming Haiwaan, directed by Priyadarshan, casts him as a ruthless antagonist and psychopath opposite Saif Ali Khan. His last films were Booth Bangla – a horror comedy which was a roaring success and Welcome to the jungle, which was also a commercial hit. The genres are nothing like each other/ And now he attempts a character that’s described as evil with Haiwaan. Akshay has described it as a deliberately dark departure and said he is no longer trying to protect the conventional image of the hero.
That is what makes his evolution worth looking at as a whole. The action hero did not disappear when the comedian arrived. The comedian did not disappear when the serious actor emerged. The social-issue films did not mean he stopped making big entertainers. Every version has simply been added to the one before it.
Three decades on, Akshay Kumar’s greatest reinvention may be that he has never allowed audiences to settle on just one version of him. For a star who began his career being defined by the word “Khiladi”, perhaps the most fitting thing is that he has spent his entire career changing the game.