Before PadMan, Akshay Kumar’s box office success rate explained in graphs

(This article was first published in August, 2017. We have modified the data and graphs as per the need.)

Akshay Kumar is all set to prove his hold on the Indian box office with PadMan that’s releasing on February 9. The film, which was earlier scheduled to clash with Padmaavat, was shifted at the request of Sanjay Leela Bhansali .

If the pre-release buzz is anything to go by, PadMan is expected to open to packed houses.

Definitely underrated, especially in terms of box office numbers, Akshay Kumar has managed to stand upto the Khans’ commercial draw in the past and continues to do so. He has been a constant on the Forbes’ highest paid actors’ list in the world and that is no fluke.

It was probably around 2007 when Akshay Kumar started breaking into the big league of Bollywood stars. At that time, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn and Hrithik Roshan were jostling to get past each other in order to challenge the Khan trio. He started getting closer to the numero uno spot and after 11 fruitful years – starting 2007 -- he is at a stage where he can rise past the competition.

So, when we decided to analyse his career, we took 2007 as the base year as that was the beginning of the brand Akshay Kumar. Also, it gave us a bandwidth of 11 years that eventually made us see certain patterns easily. We haven’t included the films in which he did a cameo or a voiceover. He wasn’t directly responsible for their BO performances.

He has done 38 films, out of which 16 are multi-starrers, in the given period. Here’s a graph that will tell you exactly how much his films have earned in these years. With 2012 being the game-changing year for Akshay Kumar, he went from strength to strength after this.

But what about the multi-starrers? He was the most popular face of all the ensemble films he has done. From John Abraham and Sanjay Dutt to Riteish Deshmukh and Anil Kapoor , he worked with some talented actors, but the onus was mostly on him to achieve commercial success.

Out of 16 multi-starrers, six are hits and three are moderately successful, so that takes his success percentage to 56.25%. Here’s a graph that will explain it for you.

His overall success percentage is better than multi-starrers. Out of 38 films, 24 of his solo films have either managed to break even or have made profits. That shows why he is one of the most bankable actors to play the solo lead.

Akshay Kumar has moulded himself as a comic actor who is also good at drama and action. It’s a great transition from just being an action star in the ‘90s. Forty-six per cent of his films fall in comedy or romantic comedy genre, while 30% come under drama category. Rest 24% are actioners or thrillers.

But what happens when his films release with other big stars or well publicised films? He lost the battle in 2009 and 2010, but since then he hasn’t lost a single box office fight. Now, even the biggest of Bollywood stars would think twice before choosing the same release date for their films.

Now, when he is ready to take his game one notch higher with PadMan, we hope this graph would look even better in some weeks.

Interact with Rohit Vats at Twitter/@nawabjha