Akshay Kumar’s career in Bollywood is easily a case study for those actors who think it’s hard to do multiple films in a year. If you look at his graph from a broader perspective, he’s one of those rare actors who used ‘stereotypes’ to his advantage. He didn’t stick to a single genre for a long and moved along with the trend.
Ironically he did his ‘Elaan’ towards the action genre with Elaan and it proved to be a hit at the box office. Yeh Dillagi, Mohra, Main Khiladi Tu Anari was his successful experiments in a similar genre.
Akshay Kumar Career Review – Tracing Footsteps: 113 Films Helped Him Emerge As A Genre-Ruler Teaching Us To NEVER Give Up
Though post this he had his ‘Zakhmi Dil’ with a string of flops like Amaanat, Ikke Pe Ikka, Zaalim, Dil Hai Bemisaal and this went on for a year until he was re-introduced as Khiladi in Sabse Bada Khiladi. He had a Suhaag in between those flops which turned out to be a success.
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In his ‘Khiladi’ era, Akshay Kumar was welcomed with initial success with Sabse Bada Khiladi, Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi, Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi but then International Khiladi and Khiladi 420 flopped. In between playing with the tag of Khiladi, he delivered around 15 flops until Andaaz arrived in 2003. He had moderate successes Jaanwar, Sangharsh.
By the time Mujhse Shaadi Karogi released, he was 50 films old in the industry. Akshay Kumar’s outing with Salman Khan was appreciated, loved by the audience and was declared as a success. But then again his roller-coaster went south as he delivered back to back average/flops until another comedy proved successful for him i.e. Garam Masala.
He still didn’t stick to just the comedy genre and threw in movies like Dosti – Friends Forever, Family – Ties Of Blood, Mere Jeevan Sathi and Humko Deewana Kar Gaye and all of them were duds. Yet again a comedy film came to Akshay Kumar’s rescue and it was big this time i.e. Phir Hera Pheri.
His next after that Jaan-E-Man didn’t do well but then started the Golden Era of Akshay Kumar. What started with Bhagam Bhag continued with hits like Namastey London, Heyy Babyy, Bhool Bhulaiyaa, Welcome and Singh Is Kinng. He had a Tashan in between which was a flop though had a tremendous buzz around it.
The best thing to note about his career will always be how he has picked himself up after delivering so many not-up-to-the-mark films. For the next few years after Singh Is Kinng, he just had Housefull and Housefull 2 as proper successes. But then entered Rowdy Rathore changing the game for Khiladi Kumar, it went on to be a super-hit.
This is where he started to regain his speed and despite few speed-breakers, he gave us films OMG – Oh My God, Special 26, Holiday, Baby, Airlift, Jolly LLB 2, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, PadMan, 2.0, Kesari, Mission Mangal and the latest being Good Newwz.
Akshay Kumar’s career truly had been a genre-breaker one. He never feared to shuffle in between the genres and hence he is at a position where he’s known as the ‘mini-box office’ himself.
