Cinema in India is more like a celebration. Our film making is unique and one of its kind. Our films are a complete and wholesome package of entertainment in which song and dance play an outsized role, of course with few exceptions. Frankly speaking, Indian films bank more on stars than on scripts. Of course we make films with good or great scripts but that coupled with so called "star power" can make a film elevate to a different level in terms of revenue it generates. Sometimes even great films fail to entertain audience because of lack of "star power." We create superstars by showering immense love on our "heroes"(rather than protagonist), as we like to call them. Media too nurtures their superstardom by invariably glorifying their personal lives and struggles and sometimes even seeking their views on topics which even the best economists in the country may find difficult to apprehend.
Nevertheless, getting a superstar status is not easy in bollywood. It needs constant, perspiring and painstaking effort. For some it may be seemingly easy but for them it's volatile too. Perhaps, this is the reason that there are innumerable " heroes" in Hindi films but only a handful of superstars who have been blessed to retain their stardom for a time longer than one could easily believe. Moreover we are living in a time when people find mutitudinious ways to keep themselves entertained ranging from OTT platform to social media to television and what not and that too in a very low cost and without moving out of one's own abode. In such a scenario it is infact a bigger and a more herculean task for our heroes to woo audience and draw them to theatres than it was two decades back and that is why perhaps they deserve lauds and accolades. Akshay Kumar undoubtedly and unquestionably is one of these superstars.
In this article we will take a look into Kumar's journey and scrutinize the different turns and bumps in his careergraph.
PHASE I: 1991-1999
Kumar debuted in the year 1991 with the action drama Sugandh, though Deedar was his first signed film and also gave a few seconds appearance in Mahesh Bhatt film Aaj (1987). Flatly speaking, Saugandh was a bad film and thus unlike his contemporaries, his debut created little to no buzz. But the following year with Khiladi which garnered decent collection, Kumar became fairly popular and perhaps could be called a star. This film is also considered the stepping stone in Kumar's career which gave him the Khiladi Kumar tag which became so popular that he appeared in seven Khiladi film series.
If one thinks, for an actor, doing four films a year is mindless and could detrimentally affect one's creativity, here's Akshay Kumar who did as many as 12 films in the year 1994. In many of his interviews Kumar admitted that he did films just to earn money, scripts and everything else were secondary. But 1994 could be considered quite a remarkable year in Kumar's journey. With four hits he was at the top of his game till then.
This entire decade for Kumar was a very ordinary one. Though people got to see someone who is good looking, who could walk on hands, who could punt and strech like one else could or no one else ever did in films, someone who could hang on aeroplanes with elan but that is it. His banal expressions, dull and unpassionate acting multiplied with lousy film choices barred him from escalating to the league of biggies of the 90s like Sunny Deol, Govinda, Anil Kapoor and of course the Khans. He had just few films in the entire decade that grossed decently to average like Mohra, Main Khiladi Tu Anari, Sabse Bada Khiladi, Yeh Dillagi and a few more. But these were no match to the kind of mega and evergreen hits his contemporaries delivered like DDLJ, Ghayal, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Hum Apke Hai Kaun, Vaastav, Raja Hindustani, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, to name a few. Neither he had humongous hits nor critically acclaimed films (Sangharsh could be though considered one, which was infact a copy of one of most influential Hollywood films) nor any awards in his kitty. Throughout this decade and this phase he was considered an underdog and big production houses and big directors frowned on casting Kumar in their films. Nevertheless, this decade saw Kumar as the face of many immensely popular songs in Bollywoood which he made even more amusing by his physical agility and charm, which he always had. This decade for him ended with a series of 14 consecutive flops. Even the cozy, hot and sensuous song sequences which was common in every Kumar's film during the 90s could not save the fate of these films which made him ponder on whether to quit acting (as he said in many of his interviews) and this was when his still controversial "Canada connection" started (he stated in a very recent interview) but saw a final relief in the form of Janwar.
However, during this time Kumar became rather popular and stood out primarily for two reasons. Firstly, he emerged as the quintessential action hero (still Kumar is considered amongst the best action heroes of all time not just in the country but across the world) and secondly, Kumar was in limelight all this while because of his multiple relationships which also made him the Casanova of Bollywood (which infact many times turned out to be troublesome in later part of his life). Infact, one of the reasons that Khiladi tag for Kumar became popular is because many think it's synonymous with Kumar's personality traits.
Phase II: 2000-2006
Year 2000 was the landmark year in Kumar's career in terms of his transition. The transition came in terms of the kind of films he chose to do or probably the kind of films he was offered. Regardless of the fact whether it was Kumar's deliberate decision to change his choice of films out of ennui for being stereotyped as an action hero or was it a matter of chance that he was offered different kind of films, it was a much needed shift. However not much transition was visible in terms of his acting skills or mundane expressions in the initial years of this phase. Probably he was least noticed amongst the three in his cult film Hera Pheri. Year 2000 was very crucial for Kumar also because it was the begining of his association with Priyadarshan who kept playing a pivotal role in his career.
Within 2 years or so the transition was also visible in Kumar's acting. In films like Khakee, Mujhse Shadi Karogi, Garam Masala and few more, his performances were mind blowing and it seemed Kumar is irreplaceable in these films. A notion started doing rounds that Akshay has truely reinvented himself. It was altogether an absolutely different personality than what Kumar was known to have for more than 10 years. It was because of these films Kumar established himself as an actor with tremendous comic timing. People started falling in love with this reinvented avatar of Kumar after watching these films, if not in theatres than obviously in television.
By this time when all these things were happening in Kumar's career, the three Khans became megastars because of their inumerable mega hits and blockbusters and Khans were being considered invincible. Sunny Deol after an illustrious career was apparently showing signs of fading away and Anil Kapoor surprisingly took a shift from lead roles to character or side roles. Hritik Roshan, who appeared to be future superstar after the sky high success of Kaho Na Pyaar Hai somewhere down the line could not cpitalize on it due to an unsucessful stint. He revived though with films like Koi Mil Gaya, Krish and the all time blockbuster Dhoom 2. But Khans' worldwide success were to a next level, unparalleled and unprecedented. Khans were indomitable.
Phase III: 2007-2015
It was in 2007 when Kumar, for the first time was tagged as a Superstar because of his four consecutive superhits Namaste London, Heyy Baby, Bhool Bhulaiya and Welcome. It was infact, only a manifestation of the affection and love that Kumar already earned during the previous 2-3 years. This successful stint actually started a year before with Phir Hera Pheri, Janeman being a miss in between, the failure of which cannot be blamed solely on Kumar as one of the mega Khans was also part of it and the film itself was unbearable, all credits to Mr. Kunder. The following year, Kumar consolidated his stardom with Singh is King and subsequently hefty production houses with large scale projects started flocking in. Kumar, who never displayed much sense in choosing films (or probably was not offered much of those) and perhaps was experiencing all these for the first time in more than 15 years made some disastrous choices with films like Chandni Chowk to China, Kambakht Ishq, Blue and more. Thus Bollywood was adorned with some big buget disasters in the name of Kumar. These disasters, though, were not absolutely blamed on Kumar as these films were nothing but horrible. But Kumar, certainly fell into disrepute amongst his fans for choosing crummy scripts.
Later, in this phase, Kumar, for probable reasons did not undertake ginormous projects. He, rather went on with cost-effective and economical ventures. Also Kumar's films didn't see much of exciting box office numbers. It appeared as if Kumar was repeating himself in the same kind of films which did not thrill his audience. But all these did not take away his Superstar status because there were few of those to his rescue like Rowdy Rathod and Houseful. It's not that Kumar did not try anything else, he also did films like Special 26 and Baby which impressed the critics and were finely made films but did not see astronomical numbers.
The rat race amongst the superstars, if there is any, was for the 4th position for Kumar along with Ajay Devgan and Hritik Roshan because the first three spots were reserved for the three mega Khans. This conclusion could be arrived at by the theories of different film analysts and columnists who always tried to establish and put forward this notion either directly or indirectly that is the Khan era will end only when they bow out.
Phase IV: 2016 onwards
Inspite of the fact that Kumar tried his hand in an array of genres after he earned the superstardom status, he was more often associated with comedy by his audience and film experts alike. Also Kumar always complaint for lesser recognition of actors who do comedy in terms of awards and acclaims. But Kumar's shift towards more of serious films was not far fetched. In 2016 Kumar changed his trajectory and started doing films which either speak about social issues or have a nationalistic feel, though some label them being jingoistic (which is perhaps pointless in a country where we have seen films like Gadar) The year saw Kumar with back to back hits with Airlift, Houseful 3, and Rustom. Unlike 2007, when Kumar's success streak stopped after a year or two this time it didn't stop any time soon. Infact, it's still continuing when this article is published. During this time Kumar ceaselessly has been part of twelve successful films as lead.
Kumar has been following a different approach to his careerpath compared to other superstars. Unlike, other superstars, who keep a considerable time gap between two films(at least a year or sometimes much more), Kumar likes to do 3-4 films a year. And for that, his films for quite a long time, didn't see the astronomical numbers in revenue that the films of his contemporaries did. Strangely, most film experts is seen judging the power of a star based on absolute box office numbers which is probably very untrue in many cases. A lot depends on the essence of a film, the audience it cater to, the maganamity of a film and also many other unrealized factors. In that case, keeping in mind Kumar's strategy for quite a long time to do multiple films a year (which makes a star too much available for the audience), doing small budget films, not doing mass entertainers rather touching very sensible subjects obviously affirms that a film like Toilet: Ek Prem Katha making around Rs. 134 crores or an Airlift making Rs.129 crores have overperformed in the box office and these are no less than the mass entertainers that grosses more than 200 crores by stars who appear "once in a blue moon" to attract more eyeballs.
All these explanations, for Kumar, though, were essential till the the begining of 2019 beacause after this year Kumar has been catapulted to a next level of superstardom. This year Kumar's all four films Kesari, Mission Mangal, Houseful 4 and Good Newwz garnered massive numbers at the box office, an affair which is perhaps difficult for any star to outstrip.
Akshay Kumar with Will Smith
Kumar's journey seems to be long, consistent and interesting with elements of uncertainty. It would be described as a fascinating journey looking at the transitions that took place probably in self realizations and self assessment which reflected through the transition in film choices and Kumar's own persona. A careergraph hinged on hardwork, discipline and patience. Added to this, some other attributes of Kumar, which has nothing to do with his films, known through different media informations and his own interviews, though has no validation, always grabs a lot of attention and perhaps makes more people love him. Kumar's disciplined lifestyle, reputation of being a family man (which is strange though, looking at his wayward nature in the past), his philanthropic gestures, natural fitness regime (which of course needs no validation), apparently seems to be bettered by none. If certain popular tabloids and magzines are to be believed, Kumar is assumed to be amongst the most popular celebrities in the world. Still there are myriad humongous projects lined up for Kumar and his audience expects him to be even bigger. So, one can arguably say that Akshay Kumar is the current biggest star of Bollywood.
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