AKSHAY Kumar has come a long way and, besides being among the elite top-paid box-office stars in India, he now bids to dislodge Shah Rukh Khan as the numero uno Bollywood hero.

In an industry dominated by the Khans, a plain Kumar has been quietly carving out his own special niche. The rise and rise of Akshay Kumar up the ever-slippery Bollywood ladder has amazed anyone remotely aware with the career path of the former waiter in a Bangkok restaurant whose lone claim to fame when he first entered the industry nearly two decades ago was his expertise in martial arts.

Today, not only is the memory of those wretched days of waiting tables in a foreign land a mere blur for his numerous fans, but he is now winning plaudits for his histrionic talents. Besides, for the first time after coming to Bollywood, Akshay Kumar bids to dislodge Shah Rukh Khan as the numero uno hero.

Of course, all this is due to the super-duper success of several Akshay Kumar films. The year 2007 was exceedingly good for Akshay Kumar. He scored big on the box-office with four super-duper hits.

Welcome, Namastey London, Heyy Babyy and Bhool Bhulaiya together grossed over five billion rupees (S$173 million) in box-office collections. And, lo and behold, Bollywood was hailing the rise of a new star-hero.

Without Lady Luck, the best of actors in Bollywood often come to grief. With Lady Luck smiling on them, the worst ones rise to the top in an industry that unabashedly worships but only box-office success.

The late hero Rajinder Kumar used to say 'Khuda meharban, gadha pehlawan' (When God is kind, a donkey can be a lion).

Kumar himself was dubbed Silver Jubilee Kumar for the large number of box-office hits in which he acted as a hero. However, there came a stage in his career when he lost his magic touch. After a string of duds on the box-office, he merely disappeared from the limelight.

Akshay Kumar initially was more an action hero than an actor with histrionic talent. He could hardly emote but his genuine proficiency in martial arts coupled with his youthful good looks helped pull in the crowds to his early films.

But added to his aura with the film-crazy fans was the perennial buzz about his romantic liaisons with various heroines. Whether by design or otherwise, he was also nicknamed Love Machine by the film press for his supposed serial affairs with film heroines.

But the old Delhi boy from a family of modest means, who went to Bangkok in search of work with the assistance of an uncle already working there and soon landed a job as a waiter in a restaurant patronised by visiting Indians, could not have got where he has without Lady Luck smiling on him.

For, while resigned to eking out a miserable living in Bangkok, Rajiv Bhatia, as he was then called, was spotted by Sridevi the reigning heroine of Bollywood.

Taken up by the immense good looks of this young hunk of a waiter, she asked him to come to Bombay and try his luck in films. Soon Simple Simon found himself in Bollywood, assuming the screen name of Akshay Kumar. However his first few films were famously forgettable.

But Akshay proved a fast learner. After the initial string of flops, he hit paydirt with Khiladi. It was a huge hit. And producers followed it up with more films in the Khiladi genre.

Action-cum-romance defined the early Akshay Kumar oeuvre. He was now a saleable star, but still a notch or two below the trio of Khans. The year 2007 changed all that.

Now, he commands a price of 250 million rupees per film. And, what is more - he gets it, too. Before the four consecutive hits, his rate per film was about 20 million rupees. This is not all. He also demands a 50 per cent share in the profit of the film after it has recovered all its costs. In other words, he has joined Bollywood's big league.

After establishing himself in Bollywood, Akshay married Twinkle, the star daughter of yesteryears' super-duper star couple, Rajesh Khanna and Dimple Kapadia, and thus stilled all controversies and rumours linking him to nubile young heroines.

With nearly two decades in the industry, he also shed his bohemian image, and began to concentrate on his career. He is now working with the best production houses. Some half a dozen films with Akshay in the lead are currently on the floors. He was recently quoted in the media as having said that following the release of his now-under-production films he would become the numero uno actor-star. -- The Star/ANN.