Akshay Kumar completes 23 years in the industry

23 years ago on this day, a martial arts expert and chef from Bangkok with absolutely no filmy background, made his debut in a movie called Saugandh. Today, he is one of the highest paid actors in the country, the biggest inspiration for strugglers and almost a perfect human being. His name is Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia popularly known the world over as Akshay Kumar.

Born in a Punjabi family in Amristar, Rajiv was brought up in Chandni Chowk. When he was three, his father was transferred to Mumbai where the family stayed in a 100 square-foot rented hall in a fishermen’s colony called Koliwada. He got admitted in a big school like Don Bosco in Mumbai purely by luck. During the school admissions, while waiting for his turn for the interview, Rajiv saw a piece of paper lying on the floor. He picked it up and dropped it into the dustbin. Father Gatty, the head of the school, noticed this and immediately gave him an admission without interviewing him.

From Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia to superstar Akshay Kumar

After his schooling, Rajiv joined the Khasla college and studied there for a year. He later dropped out and went to Bangkok to learn martial arts. He also joined the Metro guest house and started cooking and serving food to the guests.

Three years later, he travelled to Dhaka (Bangladesh) and worked there for 6 months. He also worked in Kolkata for about 2 years and returned to Delhi to start a artificial jewellery business. He would buy jewellery in Delhi and sell it in Mumbai for a small margin. Soon, he started teaching martial arts for a monthly pay of Rs 5,000. As luck would have it, Rajiv was offered a modelling assignment by a stranger and was paid Rs 21,000. The fact that he got paid more than 4 times his monthly salary for a quick modelling assignment, was one of the reasons why he chose modelling as a career.

One morning he missed his flight for an ad-shoot at Bangalore. Disappointed with himself, he went for his usual rounds at various film studios with his portfolio. That same evening, Rajiv was signed for a lead role by producer Pramod Chakravarthy for a movie titled Deedar.

Rajiv was the original choice for Phool Aur Kante but since he had given dates for Deedar, Phool Aur Kante went to Ajay Devgan. Rajiv and Ajay would both practice stunts with Ajay’s father, Veeru Devgan. While Rajiv was early, Ajay was a latecomer.

Unfortunately, Deedar got delayed, but Rajiv signed more films and changed his screen name to Akshay Kumar. The rest is history.