Over the weekend, #Akshay2000crore, a tag created by fans of Akshay Kumar was trending worldwide on Twitter. The hash tag was created to celebrate the Rs2,000 collection mark crossed by Akshay's films

Akshay Kumar, the versatile Bollywood actor, has created a new record in box office collection. With his new movie 'Special26’ becoming hit on the box office, the Bollywood star has emerged as top earner in the Hindi film industry. He is the first star from Bollywood whose films have collected Rs2,000 crore on the box office so far. In a recent list by Forbes India, Akshay Kumar was ranked fourth in the list of top celebs based on their income and popularity in 2011-2012.
 

Over the weekend, fans of Akshay Kumar created a hash tag #Akshay2000crore, which was trending worldwide till Monday. In a reply on Twitter, Akshay Kumar said, “Honestly blessed to have you all Akkians in my life. Special thanks to my fan clubs who support me so much selflessly time & again. Thank you for the #Akshay2000crore tag only possible coz of you all”.

During 2009 to 2011 Akshay was going through a rough patch, but in 2012 the Khiladi star returned with two successes, ‘Housefull2’ and ‘Rowdy Rathore’, both of them grossing over Rs100 crore ($18.2 million) on the box office.

Akshay made his debut in Bollywood with the 1991 film ‘Saugandh’. This was followed by thriller film ‘Khiladi’. Since then, he starred in several movies, commonly called as ‘Khiladi series’ that also gave him the tag of ‘Khiladi’ star. Akshay’s Khiladi series includes, ‘Khiladi’ (1992), ‘Main Khiladi Tu Anari’ (1994), ‘Sabse Bada Khiladi’ (1995), ‘Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi’ (1996), ‘Mr and Mrs Khiladi’ (1997), ‘International Khiladi’ (1999), ‘Khiladi 420’ (2000) and ‘Khiladi 786’ (2012).

So far, Akshay Kumar has starred in about 120 films, with his home production 'Oh My God' being his 116th film.

Apart from acting, Akshay has worked as a stunt actor; he has often performed many dangerous stunts in his films, which has earned him a reputation as the “Indian Jackie Chan”. The year 2008 marked his television debut as the host of the show “Fear Factor – Khatron Ke Khiladi”. In 2009, he founded a production company called “Hari Om Entertainment”. In 2008, the University of Windsor conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Law on Akshay Kumar in recognition of his contribution to Indian cinema. The following year he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India.

While the record of Rs2,000 crore earning so far looks great for Akshay Kumar, it may soon be broken by Salman Khan. While other stars from the famous ‘Khan’ trilogy, like Shahrukh and Aamir are also good earners on the box office, when it comes to reach the Rs100 crore club fastest, there is no match for Salman. Salman’s ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ is the second Bollywood film to gross over Rs300 crore, just behind Aamir starrer ‘3 Idiots’. Interestingly, 'Ek Tha Tiger' is the first film to cross Rs100 crore collections in just five days. Salman's 'Dabaangg2' took six days to reach that mark.

While the stars of Shahrukh Khan seem to have faded, Aamir does selective films. This leaves only Salman, from the Khan trilogy, to carry the torch to the box office. Salman's ‘Ready' released in 2011 and ‘Dabangg’, released in 2010 are the third and fourth highest-grossing Bollywood films of all times, respectively. In nine separate years, Salman’s films have emerged as highest grossing films of the year, which is a record on its own. Eight of the films he acted in have accumulated gross earnings of over Rs100 crore ($18.2 million) worldwide.

So, it would be interesting to see, when Salman breaks the record of Rs2,000 crore collection set by Akshay Kumar.