Khiladi is an Indian media franchise created by Akshay Kumar and Abbas–Mustan, consisting of a Bollywood action film series and an Indian stunt television series starring Akshay Kumar. Other than starring Akshay Kumar and the word "Khiladi" ("Stager" or literally "Player" in Hindi) in the title, the films and television series have little in common, with the producers, directors and stories being different. The Khiladi film series was notable for its action scenes and stunt sequences performed by Akshay Kumar, including some of Indian cinema's most dangerous stunts, drawing comparisons to Hong Kong action cinema's Jackie Chan.
Khiladi (1992), directed by Abbas–Mustan, was the first in a series of films which had Akshay Kumar in the title role and gave him his first breakthrough role. It was followed by 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) all featuring Kumar in the lead role. In 2008, Kumar launched a television show Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi, which revolves around performing stunts.
Films The series consists of eight films, starting from Khiladi in 1992. The latest installment in the series is Khiladi 786 released in 2012. The films are not linked to each other in any way other than Akshay Kumar playing the leading role in each of them. The series primarily belongs to the action and thriller genre but also had elements of romantic comedy like Mr and Mrs Khiladi (1997) and the latest installment Khiladi 786 (2012) which is an action comedy.
The first two films were produced by Champak Jain and Keshu Ramsay produced the next five films in the series. The latest installment was produced by Himesh Reshammiya. Umesh Mehra is the only director who worked on three films in the series and the other films had varied directors.
List FilmRelease dateVerdictDirector(s)Khiladi5 June 1992HITAbbas–MustanMain Khiladi Tu Anari23 September 1994HITSameer Malkan Sabse Bada KhiladiJune 9, 1995HITUmesh MehraKhiladiyon Ka Khiladi14 June 1996SUPER HITUmesh MehraMr. and Mrs. Khiladi9 October 1997SEMI HITDavid DhawanInternational Khiladi26 March 1999BELOW AVERAGEUmesh MehraKhiladi 42029 December 2000DISASTERNeeraj VoraKhiladi 7867 December 2012SEMI HITAshish R Mohan
Plot Khiladi (1992)
Raj Malhotra (Akshay Kumar), Boney (Deepak Tijori), Sheetal Nath (Sabeeha) and Neelam Choudhary (Ayesha Jhulka) are four pranksters in their college. Raj is younger brother of Inspector Suresh Malhotra (Shakti Kapoor), Boney probably has no relatives, Sheetal is the daughter of minister Kailash Nath (Prem Chopra) while Neelam is rich heiress with her uncle (Anant Mahadevan) as her only living relative. Raj and Neelam are romantically involved.
Raj bets habitually and has not lost yet, but when he bets that he can extort money from Kailash, the remaining gang is sceptical. As per the bet, they make Kailash believe that Sheetal is kidnapped, while in reality they have housed themselves in a cottage outside Bombay belonging to Pillai (Johnny Lever). But when Sheetal is murdered mysteriously, the investigation is given to Suresh. Raj, Boney and Neelam try to clean their trail.
The group suspects that the avoidance of three fatal accidents may be more than just macabre coincidences, unaware that the problem is much bigger and sinister than they can ever imagine.
Main Khiladi Tu Anari (1994)
One of the most respected inspectors, Arjun Joglekar (Mukesh Khanna) is killed by drug dealer and gangster Goli (Shakti Kapoor). Mona (Shilpa Shetty), a cabaret singer and Goli's mistress, agrees to testify against Goli and is placed into witness protection by Inspector Karan (Akshay Kumar), Arjun's younger brother, who aims to fight any injustice and avenge his brother's murder. When Goli finds out about Mona's forthcoming testimonial which would expose his real identity, he tracks her down and kills her.
Deepak Kumar (Saif Ali Khan), who is the most romantic actor around, is frustrated with his roles and being type-caste as a romantic hero. He would like to do something different and bring some change and excitement to his dull and boring existence. To change his monotonous life, he gets drunk and drives around. He is arrested by the police, and brought to his rowdy producer. This is where he meets Karan and is very impressed with his assertiveness, courage, and honesty; Deepak would like to study his behavior so that he can use this as a background for his next movie.
Karan meets Basanti who looks identical to Mona. He promises to let Deepak hang around him if Deepak can get Basanti to act as Mona. Deepak trains Basanti and presents the new "Mona" to Karan. Karan places Basanti at the Moonlight Hotel as an amnesiac Mona, where she can report on Goli's criminal activities. That's how they uncover Goli eventually. While Karan and Mona fall in love with each other, Deepak falls in love with Karan's sister, Shivangi.
Sabse Bada Khiladi (1995)
Lallu (Akshay Kumar) is an orphan who was separated from his parents and his brother as a child and has been brought up by foster parents. He travels to Bombay to look for a job and starts working as a loyal servant for rich businessman Jamna Das (Avtar Gill). One day he discovers Jamna Das's daughter Sunita (Mamta Kulkarni) drunk in a nightclub and takes her home. Jamna Das realises how loyal Lallu is and how he never took advantage of Sunita in her drunken state decides they shall marry. Sunita immediately refuses as she is in love with Amit (Mohnish Behl). When Jamna Das suddenly dies of a heart attack, his will and testament reveals that Sunita must marry Lallu or she will not be entitled to any of his wealth and estate. Seeing no other option she marries Lallu but decides to have him killed with the help of Amit so that she can inherit all of her father's wealth. Sunita and Amit succeed in their plan to kill Lallu by poisoning him, putting him into a car, and crashing it to make it look like an accident. His death is considered suspicious, and the case is assigned to Inspector Vijay Kumar (also Akshay Kumar), who is a lookalike of the supposedly deceased Lallu.
Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi (1996)
A criminal don, Maya (Rekha), hosts illegal wrestling matches in Canada (Toronto) and has the full support of the local Police Commissioner. Ajay Malhotra has relocated to Canada and has started his own orchestra with the help of some of his friends.
His brother, Akshay (Akshay Kumar), decides to visit him on hearing that he wants to marry his beloved in Canada; on the airplane he meets Priya (Raveena Tandon), and both fall in love. Once in the Russia, Akshay finds out that the police have a warrant for the arrest of Ajay and want to question him. Akshay's attempts to locate Ajay lands him with Maya, who happens to be Priya's sister. Apparently Maya is holding Ajay and will only release him after he hands over incriminating documents. Akshay soon wins Maya's confidence by rescuing her from attempts on her life made by King Don (Gulshan Grover), and Maya begins to like him and trust him. Akshay then proposes to her, to which Maya agrees, much to the disappointment of Priya.
Soon Akshay kills Maya's men when they get to know of his true identity. He also organises a fake kidnap drama with Ajay's friends, who kidnap him and demand that Maya come to meet them with Ajay. By now Maya realizes that Akshay is Ajay's brother and Priya actually loves Akshay. At the end, Maya commits suicide, and before dying she hands over her sister Priya to Akshay.
Mr. and Mrs. Khiladi (1997)
When his astrologer uncle (Satish Kaushik) predicts a favorable future for Raja (Akshay Kumar), he decides to do nothing until the prediction comes true. When he meets Shalu (Juhi Chawla) the daughter of a millionaire (Kader Khan) he decides his predicted future has arrived. However his lazy lifestyle does not meet with his future father-in-law's standards, and he insists that Raja does some hard work for a change
International Khiladi (1999)
News Reporter Payal (Twinkle Khanna) and her camera-man have been assigned the task of interviewing the world's highest ranking criminal don, Rahul aka Devraj (Akshay Kumar), which they accept. In the process, Payal and Devraj fall in love with each other, much to the opposition of Bismillah (Mukesh Khanna), Devraj's guardian on one hand; and Police Inspector Amit (Rajat Bedi), and Payal's brother Ravi (Vivek Shaq) on the other. The result is that Ravi is killed; Devraj takes the blame, and is arrested. Payal testifies against him, and Devraj is sentenced to be hanged. When Bismillah finds about this plot tracks them down but Amit so as to save him and Payal kills him. But Devraj escapes from custody, and begins to plot vengeance against his enemies, including Payal, as well as the real killer of Ravi. As the story unfolds, it is revealed that Amit was the one who killed Ravi and joined Thakral to frame Devraj for it. But Amit later betrays Thakral and kills him. He then takes Payal on a flight where Devraj tracks him down and kills him. The story ends with Payal and Devraj's marriage.
Khiladi 420 (2000)
Shyam Prasad Bhardwaj (Alok Nath) is a multi-millionaire industrialist, and his business is spread worldwide. He has a daughter, Ritu (Mahima Chaudhry), who is of marriageable age. He hires Dev Kumar (Akshay Kumar) to work for him, and is impressed with the way Dev handles himself. Shyam would like Ritu and Dev to get married. But days after the engagement, Shyam finds that Dev is a con man after his money, since he has taken debt from a criminal (Gulshan Grover).
Dev kills Shyam to bury the secret but Ritu's younger sister Riya sees this. The girl goes into a deep shock and since Dev is constantly watching her the secret cannot come out. Dev plans to kill her as well but Ritu gets an inkling of the truth somehow. Dev tries to kill Ritu on the night of their honeymoon, but Ritu manages to kill him. An afraid Ritu decides to hide Dev's body.
After hiding Dev's body, Ritu comes home. She gets the shock of her life to see Dev alive – and without a scratch on his body. Dev behaves as if nothing happened. Everyone in the home believes him to be Dev. Finally, when she is alone with him, Ritu confronts this new Dev. He tells that he is indeed Dev's twin brother Anand.
Anand explains that Dev had crooked ways, something which Dev disliked. The brothers separated. Dev called Anand just a week ago to tell that he has mended his ways and will soon marry. Dev came there meet Ritu. Dev had given all the information about Ritu and her family to Anand. That night, Anand came to meet Dev just after Ritu had killed him. Anand saw all the mess and realized that something had gone wrong.
But when he saw his ID, he realized that Anand was posing as Anand here. Now Dev was probably dead, for which he is grateful to Ritu as Anand might have had a plan to kill him along with her. Ritu and Anand kept this a secret. However, Inspector Rahul, an old friend of Ritu, became suspicious. Besides, Dev's girlfriend, whom Anand does not recognize, thinks that Dev has dumped her. Dev's another enemy is a criminal (Mukesh Rishi) who is also a rival of his money lender.
Ritu slowly starts falling for Anand, but Anand doesn't reciprocate the feelings. Anand has to live a double life – in front of the bad guys, he is Anand while in front of Ritu's family he is Dev. Rahul becomes suspicious that Ritu and Dev conspired to kill Shyam. To save Ritu, Dev takes the blame on his shoulders.
Meanwhile, when both the criminals try to get even with Dev, Rahul realizes that he has not seen a clear picture. Anand tells him the true story, which he reluctantly believes. As he cannot see an innocent man die, Rahul proposes that Dev can live only if Anand's dead body is found.