Akshay Kumar

Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia (born 9 September 1967), known professionally as Akshay Kumar , is an Indian-born naturalised Canadian actor and film producer who works in Hindi cinema. In over 30 years of acting, Kumar has appeared in some 100 films and has won several awards, including a National Film Award for Best Actor and two Filmfare Awards. Kumar is among the most prolific actors of Hindi cinema. Nearly half his films have been commercially successful.

Kumar began his career in 1991 with Saugandh. His first commercial success came with the action thriller Khiladi (1992), leading to the Khiladi film series. Akshay Kumar romantic movies include Yeh Dillagi (1994), Dhadkan (2000), Andaaz (2003) and Namastey London (2007). Akshay Kumar has played comedic roles in Hera Pheri (2000), Mujhse Shaadi Karogi (2004), Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007) and Singh Is Kinng (2008). Kumar won Filmfare Awards for Ajnabee (2001) and Garam Masala (2005). After receiving favourable reviews for Special 26 (2013), Baby (2015) and Airlift (2016), Akshay Kumar won the National Film Award for best actor in the thriller Rustom (2016). The social films Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (2017) and Pad Man (2018) and the war film Kesari (2019) brought further notice, displaying themes of Indian nationalism.

Kumar has also worked as a stunt actor. In 2014, Kumar launched the TV reality show Dare 2 Dance. Akshay Kumar owns the team Khalsa Warriors in the World Kabaddi League. As of 2015 and 2019, Kumar was on the Forbes list of highest paid entertainers in the world, ranking 52nd with earnings of $48.5 million. and the only Bollywood actor on the list. Akshay Kumar is the first Hindi film actor whose films' domestic net lifetime collections crossed ₹20 billion (US$341.31 million) by 2013, and ₹30 billion (US$446.46 million) by 2016. In 2020, Akshay Kumar was ranked as the highest paid Bollywood actor by Forbes. Akshay Kumar has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Windsor (2008) and the Padma Shri the fourth-highest Indian civil honour (2009).

Sometime during or after the 2011 Canadian federal election, the Conservative government granted Canadian citizenship to Kumar by invoking a little-known law which allowed circumventing the usual residency requirement for Canadian immigrants. According to a former Conservative Party minister, Tony Clement, the citizenship was awarded in return for Kumar's offer of putting his "star power to use to advance Canada-Indian relations", and Canada's "trade relations, commercial relations, in the movie sector, in the tourism sector".