Akshay Kumar has been working in movies for a long time. He started his career in the movie Saugandh in 1991, but the movie was not a commercial success. He saw success with the movie Khiladi, which became his trademark due to his ability to perform stunts. He didn’t need a stuntman to do his stunts. Akshay Kumar has been delivering marvellous performances year after year, it’s tough to decide which are the outstanding Akshay Kumar movies.
Khiladi (1992)
This movie was released in 1992. It has Akshay Kumar playing a gambler and college student who does a fake kidnapping of his friend Sheetal(Sheebah), together with a group of friends(Boney and Neelam). Sheetal has a rich father, Kailashnath, from whom they want to extort money. To add to the confusion, Raj’s elder brother, who is a police inspector, is handling the case investigation. Their plan fails because Sheetal is actually murdered even after her father has paid the money. The trio of Raj, Neelam and Boney are shocked and are clueless. But in the end, the culprit is caught. You will have to watch the movie to know more…
Earning:7 crores
Dhadkan(2000)
This was another one of the top Akshay Kumar movies, which got him recognition as an actor. It was one of the top-performing movies of this actor. In this movie, he strayed away from action movies and did a romantic movie. This was the second romantic drama after Yeh Dillagi in 1994.Dhadkan paired him with Shilpa Shetty, who had previously worked with him in the movie Main Khiladi, Tu Anadi.
Dhadkan was a romantic movie in which Shilpa Shetty’s character Anjali Chauhan is in love with Suniel Shetty’s character Dev, but is rejected by her father due to his poverty. Her father, Narendra Chauhan, marries her to (Akshay Kumar), Ram Verma. She does not love Ram; therefore, there is no intimacy between them. Ram lives with his stepmother and her children, who treat him poorly. Ram’s stepmother wants to ensure that Anjali starts hating Ram; therefore orders her to hand all her jewels to her. Anjali complains about this to Ram, who says it’s ok. Ram tells Anjali he knows everything about his mother and step-siblings, but he wants to win their hearts with love. Soon, Anjali falls in love with Ram, but Dev returns wanting her back in his life. What happens ahead in the movie, whether Anjali stays with Ram or leaves him for Dev, can be seen in the movie.
Earnings:26.47 crores
Hera Pheri(2000)
This comedy Akshay Kumar movies proved that he could do comedy, too. He lives on rent along with Suniel Shetty at Paresh Rawal’s house. The confusion begins when they get a wrong-number call from someone whose granddaughter has been kidnapped. The caller on the phone wants to know the place to pay the ransom. The trio has no clue about this kidnapping and goes to the suggested place to collect the ransom, where they meet with the kidnappers. They rescue the child. The movie is filled with jokes and humour between the trio.
Earnings: 59 crores
Ajnabee(2001)
This was the movie that established Akshay Kumar as an actor. He played the villain Vicky in the movie. He was paired with Bipashu Basu, who was launched through this movie. Bipasha(Sonia) and Akshay play a fake married couple and live in Switzerland. They lure Bobby Doel(Raj) and Kareena Kapoor’s(Priya) couple into befriending them. And then a murder happens. Sonia is murdered, and her face is all destroyed to reveal who she actually is. Now, Raj is a murder suspect and is on the run from the police. It was a suspense mystery that got Akshay Kumar a Filmfare award for Best Villain. This film grossed 32-33 crores at the box office, including overseas collection.
Mujhse Shaadi Karogi(2004)
One of the best Akshay Kumar movies in a comic role, Mujhse Shaadi Karoge made him a box office star. This movie paired him with Priyanka Chopra and Salman Khan. Salman Khan(Sameer) and Akshay Kumar’s(Sunny) characters are childhood buddies. Sameer has anger issues and beats up people for trivial matters. After being terminated from several jobs, he moves to Goa, where he meets Rani. He tries to impress Rani but always ends up creating the wrong impression on her due to his hot-tempered nature. The late Amrish Puri also had a memorable role in this movie, playing Rani’s father, who has to bear the brunt of Sameer’s actions. Sameer slaps Amrish Puri’s character when he hits a boy while driving his car. He slaps him so hard that he has to go to an ear doctor. Rani is infuriated with him. The movie had a lot of laughable moments. Sunny arrives to escalate Sameer’s problems with Rani, but in the end, it is revealed that he is his childhood friend who has come to help him control his temper.
Earnings:56.5 crores
Namastey London(2007)
It is one of the landmark movies of Indian cinema and of Akshay Kumar. It launched the career of Katrina Kaif. One of the best Akshay Kumar movies, this movie portrays him as a simple guy living in Punjab. When Katrina Kaif’s father, Rishi Kapoor, Manmohan, takes her to Punjab to meet his childhood friend, his son, Akshay Kumar’s character Arjun Singh, is immediately smitten by Jasmeet, aka Jazz, the British name of Katrina Kaif’s character. Jazz feels no attraction towards Arjun and decides to elope to escape the marriage. So, at the airport, she calls her friend, Imran. Imran stops her from running away and asks her to marry. Jazz marries Arjun, but does not give her father time to register the marriage.
When Jazz reaches the UK, she denies having been married to Arjun and is ready to marry Charlie Brown, a Britisher. She goes on dates with him, with Arjun residing in her house, and even gets engaged to Charlie. Jazz’s parents have high objections to her relationship with Charlie, although he is quite rich because he has been divorced three times. How Arjun makes Jazz fall in love with him and stops his bride from marrying Mr Charlie forms the rest of the story. This movie made 71.40 crores at the box office.
Welcome(2007)
This movie again paired Akshay Kumar with Paresh Rawal as his uncle. Akshay Kumar plays Rajeev, who must not marry into a criminal family as per his uncle’s Dr Dayal Ghungroo’s wishes. But he falls in love with Sanjana(Katrina Kaif), who is Don’s Uday’s half sister. Dr Dayal takes his nephew to South Africa, but he meets Sanjana again. Uday also has a best friend, Majnu Bhai, who is aggressive. Uday and Majnu force Dr Ghunghroo to agree to Rajeev’s alliance with Sanjana. What happens next is very entertaining. Dr Ghungroo has objections to their marriage because Rajeev’s father was a criminal who tortured his wife, Ghungroo’s sister. So, she asked her brother to ensure Rajeev is isolated from crime and criminals. This is one of the top-notch Akshay Kumar movies and had earnings of 122 crores.
Bhool Bhulaiya
Bhool Bhulaiya is also one of the most-watched Akshay Kumar movies. In this, Akshay plays a psychologist cum ghost buster who has to evict the ghost of Manjulika from the castle. But Akshay diagnoses that Vidya Balan who is also in the movie, has a split personality disorder, which forces her to convert into Manjulika.
Earnings: 82 crores
Singh is Kinng(2008)
This movie had Akshay again working with Katrina Kaif, whose character, Sonia, meets him in Egypt. Initially, Happy Singh, played by Akshay, causes problems in his village in Punjab, due to which the villagers decide to send him to Australia on a mission. They want to get rid of him and capture Don Lucky Singh, played by Sonu Sood, who lives there. Due to an accident, Lucky Singh can’t lead his gang anymore. So, every gang member agrees to make Happy Singh their leader. But Happy Singh can’t commit any crimes and hence makes the gang help the poor people. He also makes the gang members help Sonia’s mother make her daughter believe that she is rich. It’s because Sonia brings her fiancée to meet her mother. The movie was a huge blockbuster and earned 135 crores.
So, these are the top 9 Akshay Kumar movies of 1990s and 2000s.
