Akshay Hari Om Bhatia, known professionally as Akshay Kumar, is an Indian actor and film producer working in Hindi cinema. Referred to in the media as "Khiladi Kumar", through his career spanning over 30 years, Kumar has appeared in over 100 films and has won several awards, including one National Film Award and two Filmfare Awards. He received the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour, from the Government of India in 2009. Kumar is one of the most prolific actors in Indian cinema. Forbes included Kumar in their lists of both highest-paid celebrities and highest-paid actors in the world from 2015 to 2020. Between 2019 and 2020, he was the only Indian on both lists.
Nikkhil Suresh Advani is an Indian director, producer and screenwriter who works in Hindi cinema. He along with his sister, Monisha Advani and Madhu Bhojwani, co-founded the entertainment company Emmay Entertainment.
Chandraprakash Dwivedi is an Indian actor, film director and screenwriter, who is best known for directing the 1991 television epic Chanakya in which he also played the title role of the political strategist Chanakya and an inspiration for millions. He has also directed the 1996 television series Mrityunjay which is based on the life of Karna, one of the main characters of the epic Mahabharata, for which he won a Screen Videocon Best Director award. His other major work is the 2003 film Pinjar, a tragic love story set amidst the Hindu-Muslim tensions during the Partition of India, based on Amrita Pritam's novel of the same name. He also wrote and directed Akshay Kumar-starrer Samrat Prithviraj (2022). He was honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian honour of the country, in 2022.
Sikandar Kher is an Indian actor. He made his acting debut with the film, Woodstock Villa (2008). In the subsequent years, Kher went to be a part of multi-starrers such as Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey, Players, Aurangzeb, Tere Bin Laden: Dead or Alive and The Zoya Factor.
Feryna Wazheir is a British actress. She began her acting career in amateur theatre and made her break in the industry after she was discovered by Indian photographer Farrokh Chothia.
Special 26 is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language period heist thriller film written and directed by Neeraj Pandey. Based on the 1987 Opera House heist, the plot follows a team of criminals, who pose as CBI officers and conduct raids, robbing politicians and businessmen of their black money. With the real CBI on their trail, they decide to pull off their biggest heist yet. The film also stars Jimmy Sheirgill, Kajal Aggarwal, Rajesh Sharma, Divya Dutta and Kishor Kadam.
Bhaji in Problem is a 2013 Indian Punjabi-language comedy film directed by Smeep Kang, who had earlier directed films like Carry on Jatta and Lucky Di Unlucky Story, both of which featured Gippy Grewal in the lead role. Grewal also appears in this film, with an ensemble cast including Ragini Khanna, Gurpreet Ghuggi, B. N. Sharma, Karamjit Anmol, Japji Khaira, Khushboo Grewal and Misha Bajwa, amongst others. The film is produced by Ashvini Yardi.Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, who also appears in the film briefly as a lookalike of himself. The film also features actor Om Puri and cricketer Harbhajan Singh. Bhaji in Problem was released on 15 November 2013 on over 600 screens worldwide.
Nimrat Kaur is an Indian actress who appears in Hindi films and on American television. She began her career as a print model and went on to act in theater. After brief appearances in a few films, Kaur starred in Anurag Kashyap's production Peddlers, which was screened at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. She followed it with her breakthrough role in The Lunchbox, a critically acclaimed drama co-starring Irrfan Khan, which was screened at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
Baby is a 2015 Indian Hindi-language action spy thriller film written and directed by Neeraj Pandey. The film marks the second collaboration between Akshay Kumar and Pandey after Special 26, and stars Kumar in the lead role, along with Anupam Kher, Rana Daggubati, Danny Denzongpa, Taapsee Pannu, Kay Kay Menon, Mikaal Zulfiqar, Madhurima Tuli and Rasheed Naz. In the film, an elite team of the Indian Intelligence system, perpetually strives to eliminate terrorists and their plots, during which an officer leads a team to destroy one such potentially lethal operation.
Grazing Goat Pictures is an Indian film and TV production house launched in 2011 by Hindi film actor Akshay Kumar and Ashvini Yardi. Its first film was OMG – Oh My God! which won the National Film Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. The next film in their banner Fugly opened to mixed reviews.
Airlift is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language thriller drama film directed by Raja Krishna Menon starring Akshay Kumar and Nimrat Kaur, that follows Ranjit Katyal, a Kuwait-based businessman as he carries out the evacuation of Indians based in Kuwait during the Invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein's Iraq which led to the beginning of the Gulf War. The film was jointly produced by Abundantia Entertainment, Cape of Good Films, Emmay Entertainment, Hari Om Entertainment, T-Series and Viacom 18 Motion Pictures on a total budget of ₹320 million. The plot is adapted from the real life story of a Kuwait-based Indian businessman Mathunny Mathews.
Singh Is Bliing is a 2015 Indian Hindi-language action comedy film directed by Prabhu Deva and produced by Ashvini Yardi under Grazing Goat Pictures, which provided the story and screenplay. The film stars Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson, Lara Dutta and Kay Kay Menon. It is a quasi-sequel to the 2008 film Singh Is Kinng.
The 1990 airlift of Indians from Kuwait was carried out from August 13, 1990 to October 20, 1990 after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Air India helped evacuate 170,000 people by civil airline. The operation was carried out before the Persian Gulf War in 1990 to evacuate Indian expatriates from Kuwait. Foreign Minister I.K. Gujral was instrumental in getting Iraq to co-operate on these efforts. Following this operation Air India, the flag carrier Indian airline, entered the Guinness Book of World Records for the most people evacuated by a civil airliner. Mathunny Mathews, Harbajan Singh Vedi, Abey Varicad, V.K. Warrier, Ali Hussain and few others based in Kuwait helped immensely in the evacuation efforts of fellow Indians.
Harbhajan Singh Vedi was a Kuwait-based Indian billionaire and was one of the main persons credited with the safe airlift evacuation of 170,000 Indians from Kuwait during the 1990 Invasion of Kuwait, which is hailed as the largest civilian evacuation in history.
Raja Krishna Menon is an Indian film writer, director and producer. He started as an advertisement director and later moved to feature films. He has directed five Bollywood films. His film Chef was released on 7 October 2017.
The State vs. Jolly LL.B 2, better known as Jolly LL.B 2, is a 2017 Indian Hindi-language black comedy film written and directed by Subhash Kapoor. Akshay Kumar plays the titular character, Jagdishwar Mishra, replacing the 2013 film's lead actor, Arshad Warsi, while Huma Qureshi, Annu Kapoor and Kumud Mishra, as well as Saurabh Shukla, who reprises his role from the 2013 original, star. The film is based in Lucknow, the story follows a lawyer who fights a case against a ruthless and powerful advocate to bring justice to the deceased victim of a fake encounter involving a corrupt police officer.
Naam Shabana is a 2017 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Shivam Nair and written by Neeraj Pandey. The film is a prequel to the 2015 film Baby with Taapsee Pannu reprising her role as Shabana Khan alongside Prithviraj Sukumaran and Manoj Bajpayee with an ensemble supporting cast. Akshay Kumar, Madhurima Tuli, Elli Avram, Anupam Kher, Danny Denzongpa, Murali Sharma, Taher Shabbir and Shibani Dandekar in special appearances.
"Soch Na Sake" is a song from the 2016 Hindi film Airlift, an adapted version of Hardy Sandhu's "Soch", sung by Arijit Singh and Tulsi Kumar. The lyrics for the song is written by Kumaar and the music is composed by Amaal Mallik. The song is a melodious mixture of Hindi and Punjabi lyrics. There is also a solo version of the song, sung by Arijit Singh.
Blank is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film written and directed by Behzad Khambata. The film stars Sunny Deol, Karan Kapadia, Karanvir Sharma and Ishita Dutta. It was jointly produced by Shrikant Bhasi, Nishant Pitti, & Pictures, Tony D'Souza, and Vishal Rana. The film follows a terrorist who plans to bomb Mumbai along with his compatriots. After meeting with an accident, he loses memory of his mission, but an investigating officer refuses to take his word for it, and plans to kill him in an encounter.
Priya Seth is an Indian cinematographer, best known for her work in Indian feature films, advertisements, and underwater filming and photography. She is among a handful of women cinematographers currently working in the Indian mainstream cinema.
