Before Haiwaan, Akshay Kumar’s ‘Bad Boy’ Roles Ranked

From Ajnabee to 2.0, Akshay Kumar has had plenty of fun playing the bad guy, but which of his villainous turns is truly khatarnaak?

IMAGE: Akshay Kumar in Haiwaan.

Akshay Kumar has taken on his fair share of grey-shaded roles over the years, and honestly, he has been impressive in most of them. Even when the movies have been not worth your time and patience. Okay, well that’s most of them.

The actor is all set to unleash even more on-screen menace in Priyadarshan’s upcoming thriller Haiwaan. This will reunite him with Saif Ali Khan, his co-star from films like Yeh Dillagi, Main Khiladi Tu Anari, Main Chor Tu Sipahi, Aarzoo, Keemat, and Tashan.

Haiwaan is a direct Hindi remake of Priyadarshan’s massive Malayalam hit, Oppam. Saif Ali Khan steps into Mohanlal’s shoes as a blind building caretaker, while Akshay Kumar takes on the chilling role of a vengeance-seeking killer, originally played with terrifying intensity by Tamil actor Samuthirakani.

Interestingly, this marks the second negative role Akshay is tackling this year in a Priyadarshan film this year, after Bhooth Bangla.

Up ahead, he will also play a villain in Rohit Shetty’s Golmaal 5 and then the antagonist role in the Maddock Supernatural Universe, as teased by his surprising cameo in their blockbuster hit Stree 2.

So, while we eagerly wait for him to impress us with his upcoming ‘bad’ acts, Sreeju Sudhakaran looks back at Akshay Kumar’s past villainous roles and ranks them all from wahiyaat to khatarnaak!

 

9. Bhooth Bangla (2026)

IMAGE: Akshay Kumar in Bhooth Bangla.

Spoilers ahead if you missed Priyadarshan’s horror-comedy earlier this year, but Akshay Kumar plays a dual role here. He stars as the protagonist, a ‘young’ man arriving at a haunted palace to prep it for his sister’s wedding.

Around the midpoint, the demonic entity haunting the estate and kidnapping newlywed brides is revealed to look exactly like him. It turns out the demon is his actual father.

While the twist might seem surprising on paper, Akshay Kumar is a glaring miscast. This is particularly obvious during the flashback charting how, in his, err… ‘youth’, he falls into an evil trap just to win over the woman he loves. Even in full demon mode, he is ultimately just a lackey working for a bigger evil.

Despite the heavy makeup, he rarely generates a menacing flutter unless he is completely obscured in the shadows. Akshay has played a far superior paranormal entity before, and we will get to that one shortly.

8. Bachchhan Paandey (2022)

IMAGE: Akshay Kumar and Kriti Sanon in Bachchhan Paandey.

Farhad Samji attempted to remake the critically acclaimed Tamil hit Jigarthanda in Hindi, with Akshay Kumar taking on the terrifying gangster role that famously won Bobby Simha a National Award. That alone sets an incredibly high benchmark.

While Akshay is entertaining and menacing in his own space, the writing and overall character treatment completely let him down. The core issue is that Bachchhan Paandey constantly forgets it is supposed to be a black comedy that can become intense if needed.

It keeps prioritising Akshay’s comedic skills over leaning into the sinister, even throwing in a completely unnecessary romantic track just to soften his jagged edges.

7. Khiladi 420 (2000)

IMAGE: Akshay Kumar and Mahima Chaudhry in Khiladi 420.

Whenever Akshay Kumar tackles a double role, there is a very high probability one of them will turn out to be an evil twin or a sinister doppelgänger.

In the late Neeraj Vora’s directorial debut, Akshay plays twin brothers: One a selfish, deeply manipulative conman, and the other a pure do-gooder forced to clean up his sibling’s massive messes.

While Khiladi 420 is mostly remembered today for Akshay’s daring mid-air plane stunt, he is actually quite good as the evil brother who lies, tricks, and murders his way towards marrying a wealthy heiress.

The film itself is terrible, but Akshay Kumar’s bad-boy act became a blueprint for a far better performance in the same vein which takes the number one position in the list.

6. Blue (2009)

IMAGE: Akshay Kumar in Blue.

Before Blue hit theatres, it was hyped as the most expensive film in Indian cinema history (at the time), largely thanks to its extensive underwater sequences.

The marketing also heavily leaned into the fact that Akshay was playing a negative character. While his look definitely caught people’s attention, particularly that goatee, his grey-shaded role should not have been spoiled beforehand.

Akshay easily delivers the best performance in the film by miles. But because we already knew he was up to no good, his inevitable betrayal of the protagonists (played by Sanjay Dutt, Lara Dutta, Zayed Khan) could be spotted miles before it actually happened.

To make matters worse, the script clumsily threw in a sob story right at the end to justify his actions.

5. Aflatoon (1997)

IMAGE: Akshay Kumar in Aflatoon.

The very first time Akshay Kumar played a villain was in this Guddu Dhanoa potboiler, and naturally, it was another double role. While the film is a highly forgettable ’90s relic, Akshay’s unapologetically evil performance as a slick conman is quite the hammy fun.

Gleefully leaning into the sheer depravity of the character, his introductory scene almost feels like a bizarre riff on Jack Nicholson’s Joker from Batman.

He even gets a grand entry song blatantly ripped off from Queen’s iconic We Will Rock You. Aflatoon is not a good movie, but Akshay’s wickedly entertaining evil act actually makes it somewhat watchable.

4. 8 x 10 Tasveer (2009)

IMAGE: Ayesha Takia and Akshay Kumar in 8 x 10 Tasveer.

Here is another film where the central performance completely overshadows the messy plot and an underwhelming treatment. Nagesh Kukunoor’s psychological thriller once again sees Kumar playing twins separated since childhood.

One grows up to be a forest ranger with ESP, while the other becomes an emotionally scarred, vengeance-seeking killer.

Unlike his other entries on this list, Akshay’s dual performance here is significantly less flashy, even when he shifts into full murderous mode. It is a slow burn, and we only get to see the truly vicious side of his performance very late in the movie.

3. Once Upon A Time in Mumbai Dobaara! (2013)

IMAGE: Akshay Kumar in Once Upon A Time in Mumbai Dobaara.

Acting as a spiritual sequel to Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai, Akshay Kumar steps into a role previously played by Emraan Hashmi: a powerful underworld don heavily inspired by Dawood Ibrahim.

If the first film loosely chronicled the rise of Ibrahim and the downfall of Haji Mastan, the sequel devolves into a bland love triangle involving Sonakshi Sinha and Imran Khan, very loosely inspired by the gangster’s real-life obsession with actress Mandakini.

Once again, Akshay easily towers over the rest of the cast. His flashy, unapologetically negative turn becomes the most consistently enjoyable aspect of the entire film, even if the script eventually forces him down a painfully predictable moral path.

2. 2.0 (2018)

IMAGE: Akshay Kumar in 2.0.

Can we even call Akshay Kumar’s character in Shankar’s sci-fi magnum opus a true villain? Yes, his incredibly powerful supernatural entity, Pakshirajan, is technically the antagonist, squaring off against Rajinikanth’s dual heroes: Scientist Vaseegaran and his android, Chitti.

But Pakshirajan is just desperately trying to protect the bird population from the devastating impact of cellphone radiation, targeting the greedy politicians and telecom bosses responsible for the huge towers.

Throw in a genuinely heartbreaking flashback, and this becomes a rare instance where you actively feel much worse for the villain than you do for the heroes.

1. Ajnabee (2001)

IMAGE: Akshay Kumar in Ajnabee.

Sorry to be predictable here, but it is incredibly hard to dethrone what Akshay Kumar pulled off in this Abbas-Mustan thriller (remake of the Hollywood film, Consenting Adults). Unless he delivers something truly spectacular in Haiwaan, this stays at number one.

Ajnabee arrived right when Akshay was desperately trying to prove he was more than just a ’90s action star. He began experimenting with roles and genres, with some amount of success.

Ajnabee falls into that success category, thanks to its cheesily thrilling and twisty premise, and Akki’s snake-like performance. He was absolutely enthralling here as a conniving, murderous conman executing a ludicrously depraved, almost genius master ‘get rich’ plan.

Akshay plays the role with such a delightful, smirking creepiness that it rightfully netted him his first-ever Filmfare Award (for Best Villain).

Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff