Akshay Kumar's fun run is on: Hera Pheri to Bhooth Bangla, Golmaal 5 and beyond

At India Today Conclave 2026, Akshay Kumar made a pertinent point about the film industry's attitude towards comedy: "A comedian is never even considered for the Best Actor award."

"For a romantic role, you don't call an actor the Best Romantic Hero. You say Best Actor. But when someone does a comic role, you give him the comedian's award. Which is sad," he added, pointing at the inherent irony: "The best of actors would tell you comedy is the toughest job in business."

Akshay must know. More than any other top actor in Bollywood of the past three decades, he is the only superstar who has consistently revisited mass-market, old-school Bollywood comedy and churned out box office numbers.

His latest, Bhooth Bangla, didn't impress the critics but has clearly won over the larger audience. The horror comedy, released on April 17, has already grossed Rs 107.20 crore in India, according to the industry tracker Sacnilk, and Rs 144.70 crore globally at the time of publishing.

GOING STEADY WITH COMEDY

The laughs inside cinema halls justify the stats. The jokes may be lesser than expected, the situations exaggerated and this is definitely not the actor's best comic film or performance.

Yet, the crowds want it to keep coming. His latest reiterates he's in cruise mode with comedy, and, little wonder, three of his four upcoming projects bank on the genre. He returns this June on screens in Welcome to the Jungle, has started shooting for Anees Bazmee's untitled next with Vidya Balan, and he has also signed Ajay Devgn's 2027-scheduled Golmaal 5.

IT ALL STARTED WITH HERA PHERI

With his new film, Akshay has reunited with director Priyadarshan, one of his frequent collaborators on comedies since they made Hera Pheri in 2000. That film marked an epochal moment for Akshay. It proved to Bollywood lovers that he was capable of scoring in a genre as tricky as comedy, beyond the signature Khiladi Kumar action avatar that defined most of the nineties, his first decade in films since his debut film, Saugandh, in 1991.

Bhooth Bangla follows last year's Housefull 5, which saw a good run. The murder mystery comedy didn't wholly impress the critics, but it made money for the producers.

It all reminds you of how Akshay has steadfastly consolidated his brand of comedy over the last quarter century, reorganising it according to shifting trends. The scamster of Hera Pheri, the good-natured don of Awara Paagal Deewana (2002), the mischievous do-gooder of Mujhse Shaadi Karogi (2004) and the sly rake of Garam Masala (2005) were more in sync with an earlier era of mainstream humour.

Long before he thrived with it, a hit song in Akshay's 1996 action flick, Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi, broadly defined his happy-go-lucky image in these films: Hum hain seedhe-saadhe Akshay.

The seedha-saadha Akshay, hued with streaks of the mischievous, continued thriving through films like Phir Hera Pheri (2006), Bhagam Bhag (2006), Heyy Babyy (2007), Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007), Welcome (2007), Tashan (2008), Singh Is Kinng (2008) and De Dana Dan (2009). Many of these failed, most of them worked.

Akshay's brand of comedy continued, finding a new lease with Housefull in 2010 and its sequels. By 2012, he was mixing trademark slapstick with violence in Rowdy Rathore. The fact that the genre failed him in many films of the 2010s, such as Boss, Entertainment, The Shaukeens or Singh Is Bliing, didn't deter him from going for more comic roles.

Rather, since then, his comedy has quietly reoriented itself to stay in sync with new-age societal norms, be it Bhooth Bangla or Housefull 5 — or comedies with comment, such as Jolly LLB 3 and OMG 2. The standard funnyman he has played lately seems socially more aware, also sensitive, even when the gags are full-on slapstick.

HE WANTS YOU TO LAUGH

What binds the current image with the roles he played in the early 2000s is a simple fact: He doesn’t worry if his humour is either 'cool' or relevant. He just wants you to laugh. There is a balance he aims at striking between chaos and punchlines to strike that rhythm.

Interestingly, Akshay's comedy run lately sits alongside the rest of his filmography, because he hasn’t abandoned message cinema either. His comedy releases have boosted his commercial box office in recent years, but they've also been laced in between message-oriented projects, including Sky Force (2025), Kesari Chapter 2 (2025), Sarfira (2024) and Raksha Bandhan (2022).

If mass-market comedy still works for Akshay after all these years, it does make you do a double take. Because, look around, every other Bollywood big name is tilting towards an image reset. The industry has changed, the audience has fragmented and there is no guarantee anymore about what a “safe” film is. Comedy — especially mass-driven comedy — certainly no longer sits at the centre of the conversation. If anything, it’s starting to seem like a risk, and Bollywood's other top stars seem to be aware.

OTHER SUPERSTARS PREFER A RESET

Take Salman Khan, another Bollywood superstar traditionally known to cash in on the mass brand of comedy. There was a time when his biggest hits leaned on the genre — blockbusters like No Entry (2005), Partner (2007) and Ready (2011) thrived on easy, crowd-pleasing humour. While there has been a fair share of humour written into the characters he played out in the years that followed, Salman's recent performances have veered more towards action and spectacle — think Sikandar (2025), Tiger 3 (2023), Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan (2023), Antim (2021) or Radhe (2021). The jokes are there, but they’re no longer the main event in the screenplay.

Aamir Khan, on the other hand, never quite made that space his own to begin with. Although he showed a flair for the genre in Rangeela, Mela, Secret Superstar and Thugs of Hindostan, he continues to focus on concept-driven narratives.

Then there’s Shah Rukh Khan, whose screen persona has always carried an urban charm. Even in lighter roles, the elements of romance and drama invariably take precedence over chaotic, mass-friendly comedy. Importantly, for both Aamir and SRK, their recent projects show a tendency to move beyond what they have already tried — Aamir as the producer of the unconventional spoof, Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos, and Shah Rukh with his newfound love for action in Pathaan and Jawan, and the upcoming King.

UNDERSTANDING AUDIENCE INSTINCT

Bhooth Bangla, by contrast, is no experiment despite being a horror comedy — a genre you don't normally associate with Akshay. Yet, it is part of a pattern that has become impossible to miss. Just as Welcome to the Jungle and Golmaal 5 are — his two upcoming comedies that promise to double the high-decibel humour.

Golmaal 5 is particularly telling. The franchise's mascot, Ajay Devgn is himself one of the last stars who frequently show preference to conventional commercial Bollywood. Yet, he has now chosen to include Akshay in the franchise, which thrives on sheer madness. It’s almost like the industry knows who its safest pair of comic hands are.

Which leaves Akshay in a unique position. He isn’t necessarily chasing reinvention in the way others are. If anything, he’s banking on familiarity. There’s a certain confidence in that — an understanding of audience instinct. While others test the waters of scale and spectacle, Akshay seems to trust something simpler: Promise them a jolly good laugh, they’ll come.

It sounds like a simple formula. It isn’t. For comedy — especially the kind that plays to a large, diverse audience — is notoriously difficult to get right. It demands timing that can’t be edited into existence, and an energy that actors either have or don’t.

And Akshay has mostly got it right for over 25 years now.