Akshaye Khanna is Aura King now, but why did Bollywood shun him before Durandhar, Chhaava success?

Akshaye Khanna and his aura are getting lots of love from a new generation of audiences, many of whom probably don’t know he has been around in Bollywood for nearly three decades. The son of legendary actor Vinod Khanna started his career in 1997 but took several breaks and sabbaticals, as his flops and early baldness became burdens. Here is a snapshot of his career before the current hype surrounding his portrayal of a Pakistani gangster in the Ranveer Singh-starrer Dhurandhar.

Khanna has acted in around 40 films

Since his 1997 debut as the hero of Himalaya Putra, Khanna has worked across thrillers, dramas, and comedies. The winner of two Filmfare Awards (Best Male Debut for Border in 1997 and Best Supporting Actor for Dil Chahta Hai in 2001), he also earned several nominations for roles ranging from negative to supporting characters. His filmography shows phases of high output and deliberate breaks as he prioritised quality over quantity. His major “comeback” was in early 2025 with Chhaava, in which he was almost unrecognisable under heavy make-up while portraying the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. He ended the year with another bang, playing Pakistani gangster Rehman Dakait in Dhurandhar.

But why was Akshaye Khanna absent from Bollywood for so long? Phases of career

Khanna saw a mid-career dip when several of his films did not work at the box office. He took intentional breaks before returning to mature, character-driven roles. His debut phase was explosive, with nine films, particularly establishing him through Border and Taal. While he had no releases in 2000, Khanna reached the peak of his versatility between 2001 and 2008, featuring in 15 films including multi-starrer hits like Dil Chahta Hai, Race, and Humraaz. This period saw him slowly move away from only lead roles, instead taking on supporting and antagonist characters.

Becoming selective, he had a gap year in 2005. But his mid-career dip in 2009–2012 came with the flop of most of his eight films including Shortkut and Gali Gali Chor Hai.

Akshaye went into a major four-year sabbatical in 2013–2015, which he later described as “traumatic”.

Between 2016 and 2022 he did only eight films but began gaining attention again for his performances, particularly in Mom, Drishyam 2, and Section 375, though there were no releases in 2018.

Khanna again went into a two-year hiatus in 2023–2024, preferring only quality projects. The back-to-back critical and commercial successes of Chhaava and Dhurandhar have effectively positioned him as the real Bollywood superstar of 2025, although not in traditional lead roles.

What did Akshaye Khanna say about not getting work?

In the initial gap years, Khanna framed the breaks as deliberate choices rather than failures. But in later interviews, he spoke candidly about the emotional toll of these breaks, even as he refused to engage in constant hustle. On his 2013–2015 break after flops, he said, “Who wants to sit at home? I love to be on set.”

Khanna, who is not married, always preferred a low-key life, away from Mumbai. He is known for living quietly on Alibaug island, away from Mumbai’s glam set.

He generally avoided chasing lead roles, once saying, “If I didn’t become Shah Rukh Khan, does that mean I’m not a star?”

Premature balding: A bane that affected Khanna

Khanna has been open about the trauma caused by premature balding. He began losing his hair at around the age of 19. In Hollywood, being bald is not an issue — think Bruce Willis, Jason Statham, Vin Diesel, and Dwayne Johnson. But in a glamour-obsessed Bollywood, that was not the case.

Khanna has said his baldness was a profoundly challenging experience that tested his mental resilience and self-image, not just a physical change but an emotional and professional hurdle.

“It was like a pianist losing his fingers,” he said in an interview in 2020. “Till you come to terms with it… It’s devastating, heartbreaking. It can mentally kill you. It did affect my self-confidence a lot as a young actor. It did affect me more than I would like to admit.”

But he never concealed his baldness with wigs. He never pursued hair transplants, in a way becoming an icon for men facing similar issues.
He feared it would cost him a year or two of his career.

And it did.