Akshay Kumar is undoubtedly a true blue rockstar of Indian Cinema. He is the official Khiladi, who has aced every role that has been thrown at him. Be it comedy, hardcore action or drama, he has proved his mettle time and again.
But, the National Award winning actor is also known to be a self-made superstar. His journey is as inspiring as thrilling his performances are!
Akshay was born in Amritsar to an army officer and a house wife. As a family, they were well to do.
Later they shifted to Delhi, but his father soon passed away in a military operation. It was the first time Akshay met a life changing incident.
His family suddenly became polarised and all they had was the pension of his late father.
They quickly shifted to Mumbai, where they lived in his cousin Alka Bhatia’s home.
Akshay started doing part time jobs in Mumbai to support his mother but she also passed away soon.
To channelize his frustration he started learning Taekwondo at Mumbai with the savings of his part time income.
As he got a black belt in Taekwondo, he shifted to Bangkok to learn advanced martial arts.
Martial Arts helped me recover from grief. I wanted to learn more of it. Because I could relate and channelize my energy from not getting destroyed due to my parents’ loss.
-Akshay Kumar, at Times Now National Conference.
In Thailand, he worked as a chef and waiter at a five-star hotel to pay for his martial arts classes.
Upon returning back to Mumbai, he started teaching Martial Arts to youngsters. One day, an aspiring photographer and student of his saw the actor inside him.
We were practicing and I suddenly walked through the room… just casually… and one student noticed that I walked like a model. Sir… you can act… or do modeling… and so I got my first modeling contract.
The student recommended his name to fetch his first modeling contract.
Kumar realized that he has made more money within the first two days of shooting, than to his entire month’s salary combined, and therefore chose to model as a definite career option.
To build his portfolio, he worked as an assistant for photographer Jayanth Sheth for 18 months without any payment.
But, one morning he missed a flight to attend a major photo shoot due to which he lost his assignment. He, however, visited another studio with his portfolio where the director Pramod Chakravarthy noticed him and signed him as the male lead for Deedar.
Though Deedar failed to perform at the box office, Akshay Kumar gained the spotlight due to his acting skills. And signed consecutive assignments for more roles.
As Akshay established a persona of a hardcore action hero in the industry, he became a hot choice for any action director out there.
However he has proven his versatility repeatedly in movies like Hera Pheri where he was in a comic role, and Airlift where he has been involved in an intense drama.
Today, Akshay Kumar is one of the most successful leading contemporary actors of Hindi Cinema. He still works on a schedule of 9 to 9 and is known for having an outstanding work-life balance.
In 2009, he was honoured with Padmashree, the highest civilian honour for his contribution to Indian Cinema.
In 2015, Kumar was ranked 9th in Forbes’ first global list of highest-paid actors in the world.
In 2016, he received the National award for best actor in a leading role for his movie Rustom and become the first actor in the history of Indian cinema whose net box-office collection crossed Rs. 3000 crore worldwide.
Isn’t it so inspiring to picture an orphan boy making his way so high and still driving on. Akshay Kumar’s go getter attitude is hence remarkable. Like he quotes:
If you have the courage to keep moving forward,
No feat is impossible to achieve!
