Part action hero with martial-arts skills, part comedian with a knack for farce, part handsome leading man who can dance—like a cross between Jackie Chan, Jerry Lewis, and John Travolta—Akshay Kumar is simultaneously a tough guy and a goofball—and he always gets the girl. While he’s enormously popular in India for his everyman qualities, he’s an acquired taste for most Americans. His first film came out in 1991 and he hit it big a year later in Khiladi. He’s appeared in more than 80 movies since then, with a decent track record. The year 2007 belonged to Akshay with four hits—Namastey London, Heyy Babyy, Bhool Bhulaiyaa, and Welcome. In 2008, his film Tashan failed to do well, but Singh is Kinng (which included a cameo by American rapper Snoop Dogg on the title track) had a record opening. In 2009, his film Chandni Chowk to China was the first Hindi film made and distributed by American studio Warner Brothers, and it flopped in both India and North America. Later that year, he starred in the commercially successful, critically panned Kambakkht Ishq, playing an Indian stuntman in Hollywood, and the film featured cameos by Sylvester Stallone and Denise Richards. He has a son with his wife, Twinkle Khanna, a former actress.
