Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia a.k.a Akshay Kumar was born in Amritsar, Punjab on November 9th, 1967. He is nicknamed Akki and Mac.

He learnt martial arts in Hong Kong and has also worked as a waiter in Bangkok. While he was teaching martial arts, one of his students suggested him to go for modelling. Subsequently, he joined Bollywood with the movie "Saugandh" in 1991. He is known to perform his own stunts and is famous for his Khiladi movies-Khiladi(1992) with Ayesha Jhulka, "Main Khiladi Tu Anadi"(1994) with Saif Ali Khan, "Mr. and Mrs Khiladi"(1997) with Juhi Chawla and "Khiladi 420" in 2000. He has also done family dramas like "Dhadkan" in 2001 with Shilpa Shetty and Suniel Shetty, Waqt(2005) with Amitabh Bachchan. Of late, he is known for his comedy movies like "Hera Pheri" in 2000 with Paresh Rawal and Suniel Shetty, Garam Masala(2005) with John Abraham and "Phir Hera Pheri" and "Mujhse Shaadi Karogi" in 2004 with Priyanka Chopra and Salman Khan. His last released movie was "Tees Maar Khan" (2010), directed by Farah Khan. He won the Best Villain award for "Ajnabee" in 2001, co-starring Bobby Deol.

Akshay has been linked with most of his heroines, namely Pooja Batra, Raveena Tandon, Rekha and Shilpa Shetty, before tying the knot with Twinkle Khanna in 2001. He has a son, Aarav, who was born in 2002.

From being a waiter to a Bollywood star, Akshay Kumar has come a long way. Today, Akshay Kumar is considered to be one of the most dependable stars of Bollywood.