"Hum hai Seedhe Saadhe Akshay...Akshay..." singing this, a young man with unconconventional looks and a great physique entered the film industry to become a favourite today.

Akshay Kumar was born in Amritsar, Punjab to a Hindu family on 9th September, 1967. From a very young age, he was recognised as a performer, particularly as a dancer. Acting was not his dream from the beginning though. He trained himself in Taekwondo in India and studied martial arts in Bangkok, Thailand. He also learned Muay Thai and worked as a chef and a waiter at that time.

Upon returning to Mumbai, he started teaching Martial Arts, where luck was beckoning him. One of his students was a photographer and he suggested that Akshay Kumar try out modelling. The student gave him a modelling assignment for a small company. For his two hours posing in front of the camera, Kumar earned more than his usual work. That was one of the main reasons why he chose to be a model. After a couple of months of modelling, Kumar was offered a lead role by producer Pramod Chakravarthy for the movie Deedar.

Kumar made his Bollywood acting debut with the 1991 film Saugandh, which was followed by the 1992 thriller film Khiladi. The beginning of his career was marked by mostly action films and he was particularly known for his appearances in feature films commonly called the "Khiladi series", which included Khiladi (1992), Sabse Bada Khiladi (1995), Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi (1996), International Khiladi (1999) and Khiladi 420 (2000), as well as other action films such as Mohra (1994). Although his initial movies didn't work that well, his later films became huge hits. Films like Namastey London, Singh Is King, Hera Pheri, made him a successful and popular actor. He also worked for the animated film Jumbo.

Kumar made his small screen debut as the host of the successful show Fear Factor – Khatron Ke Khiladi. He later returned to host the show's second season in 2009.

Famously known as a casanova, he has proved it otherwise by getting married to Twinkle Khanna in 2001 and the couple is still going strong. Apart from his personal life, AKshay Kumar also received a lot of attention professionally. In 2008, the University of Windsor conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Law on Kumar in recognition of his contribution to Indian cinema. The following year he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India. He has also won many other awards and accolades.

Happy Birthday Akshay from Fridaymoviez!