Akshay Kumar (born Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia) ~ popular Bollywood actor and producer, born on September 9, 1967, in Amritsar, Punjab. After studying and teaching martial arts, Akshay became a model, and in 1987 he appeared in a Mahesh Bhatt film ‘Aaj’ as a martial arts instructor. He made his first appearance as a lead actor in ‘Saugandh’ in 1991, but Akshay’s breakthrough role was ‘Khiladi’ in 1992. Akshay, known especially for his action roles and comedies, has appeared in over 120 movies in the last two-and-a-half decades. Many have been blockbusters, such as: the ‘Khiladi’ series, ‘Yeh Dillagi’ (1994), ‘Mohra’ (1994), ‘Hera Pheri’ (2000), ‘Aankhen’ (2002), ‘Khakee’ (2004), ‘Namastey London’ (2007), ‘Singh is Kinng’ (2008) and ‘Singh is Bling’ (2016), ‘Houseful’ (2010) and ‘Housefull 3’ (2016), ‘Rowdy Rathore’ (2012), and ‘OMG- Oh My God’ (2012). In the last few years, Akshay has found success with patriotic films, such as: ‘Holiday’ (2014), ‘Baby’ (2015), ‘Airlift’ (2016) ‘Rustom’ (2016) winning the National Award for Best Actor, ‘Jolly LLB 2’ (2017), and ‘Gold’ (2018). He has also found success in social issue movies, such as: ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ (2017) and ‘Padman’ (2018). In ‘2.0’ (2018), Akshay was the super-villain to Rajinikanth’s hero. He had two successful films in 2019: ‘Kesari’, as a Sikh officer in a period war film; and, ‘Mission Mangal’, as the leader of a team of scientists working on the Mars Orbiter Mission, ‘Housefull 4’, and ‘Good Newwz’. ‘Laxmmi Bomb’ was to release in 2020 but will now release to a streaming platform because of CoVid. Rohit Shetty’s ‘Sooryavanshi . has also been affected by the virus. Akshay has his own production companies founded in 2008, Hari Om Entertainment, and in 2011, Grazing Goat Pictures. Akshay is married to author and former actress, Twinkle Khanna, daughter of iconic actor Rajesh Khanna and Dimple Kapadia. The couple have two children.
