What would you call an actor who has given 13 flops on the trot? Whose career graph has careened so wildly between hits and misses that critics and audiences have gleefully written him off every now and then. Who has more obituaries penned by his detractors than eulogies by his admirers?
Not a superstar, surely? And the safest box office bet, most certainly not!
Time for a reality check, amigos! Each of those sobriquets – superstar, safest box office bet, Mr dependable – all belong to the one and only Akshay Kumar, the highest-earning Bollywood actor in the industry today. Each. Godamn. One.

And yes, in his mesmerizing ride to the top, he’s also the one to have gone through the ignominy of 13 straight flops, being written off by every trade pundit there is and being declared a has-been in the industry.
It was only Akki’s indomitable spirit that made him rise from the ashes like the proverbial phoenix, to stride like a colossus across the realm of Bollywood and reach where he is today – a position in the industry where all his films mean ‘guaranteed success’. Rome wasn’t built overnight, right? Nor did Akshay Kumar achieve the enviable place he is at now in a span of moments!

It took years of hard work – nay, sweat, tears, and blood – to reach the breath-taking pinnacle of success he has attained.

When you think of Bollywood and you compile words like energy, discipline, action, romance, and most importantly, an actor who easily manages to swing 4 films a year, you can only and only think of Akshay Kumar.
Where other actors, even those of the new generation, the young and energetic souls, fail to do more than 2 films in a single year, it’s actually quite amazing to witness how wonderfully he averages 3-4 films a year, and all hits, mind you.

Akshay already has a spree of films lined up in the near future. Sooryavanshi, Laxmmi Bomb and Bachchan Pandey, Housefull 4 and Good News were already there to his credit. While one would think that was quite enough, Mr Workaholic, aka Akshay Kumar, on the occasion of his 52nd birthday today, has just gone ahead and announced another movie to his name. It is none other than ‘Prithviraj’, which will be produced by Yash Raj Films.
That makes it six releases in 16 months or one release every three months, to be precise!
Phew! For a 52-year-old, Akshay sure shows no signs of letting up!

How, pray tell us, how? Either Akshay has some miraculous fount of boundless energy hidden up somewhere, which he draws from, every now and then; or the man is a true marvel of nature. It’s more the latter, we believe.
For Akshay, Prithviraj Chauhan is one of the most inspirational characters he could ever play, because he finds the medieval King an inspiration for his values and valour. The movie is slated to release on Diwali 2020.
Box Office successes aside, Forbes has recently declared Akshay Kumar as the only Indian entertainer in its list of highest-earning entertainers in the world in 2019.

However, this phase for Akki Kumar wasn’t there always. There were multiple times when Akshay had a low phase and people had written him off. What’s more fascinating is the fact that some actors go through such phases once or twice or a maximum thrice in their careers. But Akshay has categorically said that he has gone through such a low phase six times in his life. What’s more, there was a time when 13 films of Akshay were declared a flop one after the other.

From having trained in martial arts in Bangkok, to having worked as a waiter, to doing small-time films, he has done it all, until destiny and God decided to smile on him. Hailed as the ‘action king’ of the 1990s, there was a time when he was the only choice in Bollywood when it came to action-oriented films. A big reason for that were his disciplined lifestyle and the way he managed his daily routine. From sleeping early at night by 9pm to waking up early in the day at 4.30am and having the ideal natural diet and workout regime, his lifestyle has been a big reason for his survival in the industry today as an action hero. Remember Charles Darwin and his ‘Survival Of The Fittest’ theory? Surely, every inch of it applies to this man.

Akshay has been simply unstoppable since 2014, with movies like Baby, Holiday: A Soldier is Never Off Duty, Entertainment, Airlift, Housefull 3, Rustom, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, Jolly LLB 2, Naam Shabaana, Padman, Gold, Kesari and Mission Mangal, and incredibly, each of them has been super- successful at the box office.
There can be a zillion debates on the fact as to who is the ‘Badshaah’ or the ‘Shahenshah’ or the ‘Sultan’ of the box office, but the truth is that Akshay has slowly and steadily, in a very low-key way, wrested all the sobriquets from their erstwhile owners. C’mon, accept it, ye all!

Even Salman Khan has said in one of his interviews that he believes, ‘Akshay Kumar is the real Sultan of the box office’.

So, taking into consideration the above, is it genuinely safe to say that, in today’s time, Akshay Kumar is truly the best bet for the industry, with respect to box office numbers and guaranteed success?

We certainly think so.

What about you? Share your views in the comments below.

And oh, a very happy birthday to the indefatigable Akshay Kumar, from all of us at IWMBuzz!

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