Dhurandhar’s Rs 5 billion success didn’t make Akshaye Khanna a star — it reminded us he always was

You just had to be there.

You had to know what it felt like to live and breathe Bollywood in the 1990s and early 2000s—a time when an Akshaye Khanna sighting wasn’t an event; it was routine. Long before memes, reels and the internet rediscovering him dancing in Dhurandhar (now past the Rs 5 billion mark), Khanna was simply everywhere, slipping between genres and moods.

Fresh off Border, where he played a soldier with quiet conviction, Khanna also leaned into the era’s loud, unapologetic romances—because that’s what the decade demanded. In Aa Ab Laut Chalein, opposite Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, he played a man undone by pride, abandoning love only to recognise his mistakes too late.

Taal cemented him as something rarer: a soft-spoken, introspective romantic lead. Set against sweeping mountain visuals and class divides, his performance—especially during Nahin Saamne—offered a calm emotional anchor amid the film’s heightened drama.

Then came Dil Chahta Hai. As Siddharth, the quiet counterpoint to Aamir Khan’s brash Aakash and Saif Ali Khan’s breezy Sameer, Khanna delivered one of Hindi cinema’s most tender portrayals of unrequited love. Sid’s affection for Tara (Dimple Kapadia), a woman older than him, unfolded without melodrama—just restraint, dignity and emotional maturity. He asked for nothing, loved without entitlement, and stayed by her side without conditions.

The same year, Humraaz proved he could pivot easily into a slick thriller, earning praise and award nominations. That skill only sharpened in the Race films, where Khanna excelled as a charming manipulator in stories that gleefully toyed with logic. Yet he was just as compelling in comedies like Hulchul, where fake romance turns real, unleashing the kind of chaos only 2000s Bollywood could sustain.

Yet, what all these performances together is how little Akshaye Khanna has changed to fit the industry around him. While Bollywood grew louder, shinier and more image-driven, he stayed resolutely inward. He chased his stardom, but without letting everyone know. He was always the star, many just didn’t know it yet.

He picked roles that allowed him to observe rather than dominate, to underplay rather than announce himself. It was the unintentional trick, where everyone later, turned to miss him when he wasn’t there, or reminsced his comedy---and so, when a Rs 5 billion Dhurandhar shows up, and express his stardom, talent for acting as something new, it’s worth remembering that he was always there. He never, really went anywhere.

Akshaye Khanna didn’t shout for attention. He didn’t need to. He simply showed up, acted, and went home.