How Rajiv Bhatia became Akshay Kumar

Akshay Kumar, the superstar of Bollywood who is often referred to as Khiladi Kumar, was born as Rajiv Bhatia in a Punjabi family, this is a known fact but many do not that Akshay Kumar was the name of a character in a Mahesh Bhatt film titled ‘Aaj’. In fact, Akshay marked his Bollywood debut with the same film, the actor played a Karate instructor for ten seconds in ‘Aaj’.

Back then no one took notice of the handsome hunk in the film. However, Akshay Kumar loved the role played by the film’s leading man Kumar Gaurav and the character was known as Akshay. Khiladi Kumar was so impressed with the screen name of Kumar Gaurav that he decided to change his name from Rajiv Bhatia to Akshay Kumar for all his films.

RELATED: When Akshay Kumar’s acting was referred to as ‘furniture’

Coming soon, Akshay Kumar will be seen in his 125th film, Tinu Suresh Desai’s next. In his upcoming release ‘Rustom’, Akshay Kumar plays the part of a naval officer and the movie is due for a worldwide release on August 12.

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