Akshaye Khanna

Akshaye Khanna is the son of actor and politician Vinod Khanna and Geetanjali Khanna. His elder brother is actor Rahul Khanna. He studied at Bombay International School and Lawrence School in Lovedale, Ooty, and later trained at the Kishore Namit Kapoor Acting Institute in Mumbai.

Khanna has described himself as better at sports than studies. He has never married and is known for preferring privacy and solitude away from extensive media attention.

Khanna made his acting debut in his father Vinod Khanna's production Himalay Putra in 1997. Although the film performed poorly, his next release, J. P. Dutta's war drama Border, became a major success. Khanna played the real-life army officer Dharamvir Singh Bhan and won the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut.

His early film roles included Mohabbat, Doli Saja Ke Rakhna, Kudrat, Aa Ab Laut Chalen, Laawaris and Dahek. He achieved another commercial success with Subhash Ghai's musical romance Taal in 1999, opposite Aishwarya Rai.

Farhan Akhtar's Dil Chahta Hai became a turning point in 2001. Khanna played Siddharth Sinha, a quiet and sensitive artist, alongside Aamir Khan and Saif Ali Khan. His performance earned him the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Khanna played a convincing con artist in the thriller Humraaz and a lawyer in Deewangee, both released in 2002. He then established himself in comedy with Priyadarshan's Hungama and Hulchul, while also appearing in the war drama LOC: Kargil and the action thriller Deewaar.

One of his most acclaimed performances came in Gandhi, My Father in 2007, in which he portrayed Harilal Gandhi, the eldest son of Mahatma Gandhi. The film received positive critical attention despite underperforming commercially, and Khanna's portrayal is widely regarded as one of his most notable roles.

In Abbas-Mustan's thriller Race in 2008, Khanna played the antagonist Rajiv Singh. His performance in the negative role won him Best Villain honours at the IIFA Awards and Screen Awards. He also appeared in films such as Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute to Love, Naqaab, Aaja Nachle, Mere Baap Pehle Aap, Aakrosh and Tees Maar Khan.

After a hiatus from film acting, Khanna returned in 2016 as the antagonist Wagah in the action comedy Dishoom. He followed it with roles as a CBI officer in Mom and an investigating police officer in Ittefaq, both released in 2017.

He played policy analyst Sanjay Baru in The Accidental Prime Minister and a defence lawyer in Section 375, earning a Filmfare Critics Award nomination for the latter performance. His subsequent credits included Sab Kushal Mangal, State of Siege: Temple Attack, Love You Hamesha and Drishyam 2, in which he played police officer Tarun Ahlawat.

Khanna received widespread acclaim in 2025 for portraying Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in Chhaava and gangster Rehman Dakait in Dhurandhar. His spontaneous dance sequence in Dhurandhar, set to the song "Fa9la," became widely shared on social media. He later appeared opposite Sunny Deol in the legal drama Ikka.