Rich and Lonely

Rich and lonely

AKSHAY KUMAR has proved to be the proverbial dark horse in an industry dominated by star kids and the Khans. Labelled as a wooden actor during his initial days Akshay has slowly and steadily carved a niche for himself and is today threatening the Khan triumvirate; Salman, Shah Rukh and Aamir.

Akshay also known as Khiladi Kumar is now threatening King Khan, Shah Rukh's position in the overseas market. Shah Rukh who had been ruling the US-UK and Canada box-office ever since the success of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge for the first time lost to Akshay in the foreign market. Shah Rukh's Chak De India made approximately Rs. 3.5 crores in UK whereas Akshay's Heyy Babyy collected more than Rs. 6 crores in the first few weeks.

The trade buzz surrounding Akshay is that he's recently cracked a whopping Rs. 41 crore deal with Venus of which Rs. 20 crore is his remuneration. Apart from his salary Akshay will receive an additional Rs. 10 crore prior to the release of the film and will further make money from the distribution of the film as he has a 54 per cent partnership with Venus.

Though Akshay refuses to talk about his business ventures and maintains, "I don't know what you're talking about?" Ratan Jain of Venus spills the beans, "Akshay is a bankable star and with him we are hoping for some fireworks at the box-office and huge numbers," he says.

While Shah Rukh worked with the big fish in the industry namely Subhash Ghai and Karan Johar and Yash Chopra, Akshay made a living working with directors such as Priyadarshan and Vipul Shah. Though Akshay was delivering hits, the Ghais, Johars and Chopras kept away from him all these years.

But now even Yashraj productions seem to have realised Akshay's power at the box-office and have recently signed him for their forthcoming film Tashan starring Saif Ali Khan, Anil Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor.

But with success comes loneliness and with his new found fame Akshay is making a lot of enemies in the industry. Extremely unpopular among his co-stars thanks to his reported fondness for cutting and editing his colleagues' roles Akshay has fallen out with Suniel Shetty, Shahid Kapur, John Abraham and now Shiney Ahuja.

Recently Shiney was in for a shock when he watched Bhool Bhulaiya, and was heard grumbling that Akshay used his friendship with director Priyadarshan and chopped off his role in the film. Incidentally Suniel Shetty has also chosen to opt out of Vipul Shah's Singh Is King, which has Akshay playing the lead role.

Unlike Shah Rukh and Salman Khan, Akshay hasn't been too successful in creating a camp or rather maintaining friendships in the industry. He even had a fight with Salman when the former danced with his wife at a party. Akshay also had fallout with mentor Sunil Darshan who resurrected his career with Jaanwar and Dhadkan.

Will Akshay manage to retain his newfound success at the box-office and topple the Khans? Wait till his next release.