15 Characters That Define Akshay Kumar’s Extraordinary Career

Three decades, more than a hundred films and a career that has travelled from action to comedy, romance, drama, social cinema and historicals. Akshay Kumar has never allowed himself to be defined by just one kind of hero. If anything, his filmography is a record of how often he has changed the game on himself. Here are 15 characters that capture the many faces of Akshay Kumar.

1. Raj Malhotra – Khiladi (1992)

Every long career has a beginning, and for Akshay Kumar, it was Khiladi. As Raj Malhotra, he was young, athletic and ready to throw himself into danger, giving audiences a taste of the action star he would become. The success of the film also gave Akshay the nickname that would follow him for decades: Khiladi.

2. Inspector Amar Saxena – Mohra (1994)

If Khiladi announced Akshay as a promising action hero, Mohra established his commercial muscle. As Inspector Amar Saxena, he had the swagger, romance and physicality that audiences had come to expect, but on a much bigger scale. Alongside Suniel Shetty, Akshay became part of one of the defining action entertainers of the 1990s.

3. Raju – Hera Pheri (2000)

This is where the story really changed. Raju was broke, impulsive, greedy, perpetually scheming and absolutely hilarious. Akshay’s comic timing opposite Paresh Rawal’s Baburao and Suniel Shetty’s Shyam turned the character into one of Hindi cinema’s most beloved comic creations. Hera Pheri became a cult favourite and revealed that the action star had a formidable comic actor hiding in plain sight.

4. Vikram Bajaj – Ajnabee (2001)

Akshay didn’t always insist on being the hero. In Ajnabee, Vikram Bajaj, a manipulative character of questionable morality, turns out to be the villain of the film. His performance earned him the Filmfare Award for Best Villain and was a forerunner of things to come as Akshay decided to go for an interesting role rather than the security of his established image.

5. Arjun – Garam Masala (2005)

Three girlfriends. One apartment. One increasingly impossible balancing act. As photographer Arjun, Akshay turned lying, panic and elaborate improvisation into an art form. His chemistry with John Abraham and his mastery of physical comedy made Garam Masala one of his signature comic performances. It also won him the Filmfare Award for Best Comic Actor.

6. Dr Aditya Shrivastav – Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007)

A psychiatrist walks into a supposedly haunted ancestral mansion and proceeds to treat the supernatural mystery as a problem to be solved. Dr Aditya gave Akshay the chance to combine comedy with a straight-faced, investigative performance. The film’s success proved once again that he could move between genres without losing his mainstream appeal.

7. Arjun Singh – Namastey London (2007)

Akshay’s romantic hero had a very different flavour from the polished urban lover traditionally associated with Bollywood. Arjun Singh was confident, rooted and unapologetically Punjabi, and his romance with Katrina Kaif’s Jasmeet gave Akshay one of his most memorable romantic roles. It also earned him a Filmfare Best Actor nomination.

8. Rajiv – Welcome (2007)

If Hera Pheri established Akshay as a comic force, Welcome showed how effective he could be as the straight-faced man trapped in someone else’s madness. As Rajiv, a mild-mannered man who falls in love with Katrina Kaif’s Sanjana, Akshay spends much of the film trying to make sense of Uday Shetty and Majnu Bhai’s increasingly absurd world. His bewildered reactions became as memorable as the film’s many comic set-pieces.

9. Happy Singh – Singh Is Kinng (2008)

Happy Singh is exactly what his name promises – enthusiastic, innocent and perpetually caught in situations beyond his control. The character allowed Akshay to lean completely into broad comedy while carrying a large-scale commercial entertainer. Singh Is Kinng became one of the biggest successes of his career and another reminder of how naturally comedy had become part of his star identity.

10. Aarush Awasthi – Housefull (2010)

Akshay’s comic persona found another definitive home in Housefull. As Aarush Awasthi, he played a man whose desperate attempts to fix his complicated personal life only create more chaos. The film gave Akshay another showcase for the deadpan reactions, physical comedy and escalating panic that had become increasingly central to his comic performances. Housefull also began one of the most successful comedy franchises of his career.

11. Shiva / Vikram Rathore – Rowdy Rathore (2012)

By 2012, Akshay had already become one of Bollywood’s most recognisable comic stars. Then came Rowdy Rathore, and the Khiladi returned, louder, tougher and considerably more massy. Playing the dual roles of conman Shiva and fearless police officer Vikram Rathore, Akshay brought his action persona back to the front and delivered a major commercial hit.

12. Ajay Singh – Special 26 (2013)

With Special 26, Akshay began showing a different kind of hero – muted swagger, more intelligence. Ajay Singh leads a team of men who pose as CBI officers and carry out fake raids, relying on planning and nerve more than brute force. It was a less frantic performance and a major step toward the serious adult roles that would increasingly define the next stage of his career.

13. Ranjit Katyal – Airlift (2016)

Ranjit Katyal is one of the most memorable characters of Akshay’s career. He is a fictional character, created as a composite inspired by several businessmen involved in the 1990 evacuation of Indians from Kuwait. Akshay plays a businessman who initially identifies more with his life in Kuwait than with India, before the invasion forces him to step up and help stranded Indians. He plays it with flair and the film is remembered as one of his most intense performances.

14. DCP Veer Sooryavanshi – Sooryavanshi (2021)

Akshay returned to the action-hero territory that had defined the first phase of his career with Sooryavanshi. As DCP Veer Sooryavanshi, chief of the Anti-Terrorism Squad, he became part of Rohit Shetty’s interconnected cop universe alongside Ajay Devgn’s Singham and Ranveer Singh’s Simmba. The role brought Akshay back to the larger-than-life action space, but with the scale and spectacle of a modern franchise.

15. The Messenger – OMG 2 (2023)

In OMG 2, Akshay took on a very different kind of supporting role as a divine messenger who guides Pankaj Tripathi’s Kanti Sharan Mudgal through his fight for sex education. The film allowed Akshay to use his star presence in a more unusual way. Rather than being the conventional protagonist driving the story, he becomes the larger-than-life figure who sets the central character on his path.

The remarkable thing about Akshay Kumar’s career is not simply that he has made an extraordinary number of films. It is that he has repeatedly reinvented what an Akshay Kumar film can be. And that is the most fitting way to look at the man who started his career as the Khiladi: he never stopped playing a different game.