There’s no doubt that Akshay Kumar is one of the most prolific actors in today’s Hindi cinema. With his humble beginnings, the actor has turned out to be a superstar with many hits in his career. In fact, Akshay is known to be a workaholic who loves to release as many films in a year as possible. Even during the pandemic in 2020, Akshay was among the first celebs to have wrapped his film Bell Bottom as soon as the lockdown was lifted.

However, the journey to stardom wasn’t easy for the actor as many would believe. He had once shared how he was perceived as the stuntman and was only considered for action films. He had also faced several rejections. One of which was Aamir Khan’s 1992 film Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar. The film had featured Aamir as the lead role alongside Pooja Bedi, Deepak Tijori, Ayesha Jhulka, and Mamik Singh. 

It so happened that Akshay had auditioned for the film but not for the main role. In fact, he had arrived to play the antagonist Shekhar Malhotra, which had eventually gone to Deepak Tijori. In a throwback interview with ETimes, Deepak shared the experience and revealed how he and Akshay had auditioned for the role together. 

“Akshay Kumar and I went for the same audition and we were both rejected. So, I was not to be a part of ‘Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander’. 75 per cent of the film was already complete when I joined them; Milind Soman had shot for the film, not me,” he had said. The movie was directed by Mansoor Khan and was produced by Nasir Hussain. 

Akshay had made his debut in Bollywood with the film Saugandh in 1991 and then starred in the movie Dancer the same year. The actor now has several movies in the pipeline. He will feature in Bell Bottom alongside Vaani Kapoor and Huma Qureshi. He has been prepping for Ram Setu, which will star Jacqueline Fernandez and Nushrrat Bharuccha. 

The actor has Aanand L Rai’s Atrangi Re co-starring Sara Ali Khan and Tamil star Dhanush. Chandraprakash Dwivedi’s Prithviraj is also in the works which will mark former Miss World Manushi Chhillar’s debut.

Akshay will later be seen in Bachchan Pandey with Kriti Sanon and Raksha Bandhan with Bhumi Pednekar. 

On the other hand, Aamir is currently filming for Laal Singh Chaddha. The movie, which is an adaptation of Forrest Gump, will co-star Kareena Kapoor Khan.