Top 10 Iconic Bollywood Actors

Here is a list of Top 10 Iconic Bollywood Actors.

10.  Anil Kapoor

Anil Kapoor, the chocolaty hero, has appeared in many Bollywood films and more recently international films. Kapoor’s career has spanned for over 30 years as an actor, he turned into producer with his critically acclaimed movie namely Gandhi, My Father. Kapoor is often credited as being the 2nd biggest star of Bollywood in the 80′s after Sanjay dutt.

Anil Kapoor’s first role in an international film was in Danny Boyle’s (2008) Academy Award – winning film Slumdog Millionaire, for which he shared the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. His performance in the eighth season of the action series 24 generated rave reviews from the American press.[4][5] Globally, Anil Kapoor is one of the most recognised Indian actors.[6] He has also appeared in the 2011 film Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol for which he received good reviews from critics and audience.

9.  Sanjay Dutt

The most Iconic Bollywood actor and producer Sanjay Dutt, son of film actors Sunil Dutt and Nargis Dutt, made his acting debut in 1981. Since then he has acted in some of the most popular Hindi language films. Although Dutt has enjoyed major success in movie genres ranging from romance to comedy, it has been the roles of gangsters, thugs and police officers in films representing the action genres that has won Dutt unprecedented adulation, with fans and Indian film critics alike referring to him as the “Deadly Dutt,” for his larger-than-life portrayals of such characters.

8.  Akshay Kumar

A long road traveled; from a waiter in Bangkok, to one of the most successful actors in Bollywood, Akshay Kumar has come a long way. As an instructor in martial artist, Rajiv Bhatia always dreamt of making it big in that field but when a student suggested that with his good looks and a good built, he should take up modelling, the anonymous Rajiv Bhatia began his journey as Akshay Kumar who then slowly but surely worked his way up to becoming one of the most talented stars of the industry. Stunned at the pay package and his success as a model, Akshay took the next obvious step, and entered into films. However unlike most of the other stars in his time, Akshay neither had star parents, nor a godfather to launch him.

He has been nominated for Filmfare Awards several times, winning it two times. He has appeared in over 125 films. When he began his acting career in the 1990s, he primarily starred in action films and was particularly known for his appearances in feature films commonly called the “Khiladi series”.

Apart from acting, Kumar has worked as a stunt actor; he has often performed many dangerous stunts in his films, which has earned him a reputation as the “Indian Jackie Chan”. In 2008, the University of Windsor conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Law on Kumar in recognition of his contribution to Indian cinema. The following year he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India. In 2011 The Asian Awards honoured Kumar for his outstanding achievement in Cinema.

7.  Salman Khan

Often known as Bollywood’s “bad boy,” his knack of walking into trouble has overshadowed people’s perception of him as an actor. He has been featured as the bad guy of the industry several times over. But many-a-common-man claims that this macho hunk has a heart made of pure gold.

Born as Abdul Rashid Salim Salman Khan, Khan began his acting career with Biwi Ho To Aisi but it was his second film Maine Pyar Kiya in which he acted in a lead role that garnered him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut.

In 1999, Khan won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for his extended guest appearance in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998). In 2011, he won the Screen Award for Best Actor for his performance in Dabangg and in 2012, he won the Best Actor Popular Choice for his performances in Ek Tha Tiger and Dabangg 2. Eight of the films he has acted in, have accumulated gross earnings of over INR100 crore (US$17 million) worldwide. He played leading roles in five consecutive blockbusters including Dabangg, Ready, Bodyguard, Ek Tha Tiger, and Dabangg 2. He has starred in more than 80 Hindi films and thus far has established himself as a leading actor of Hindi cinema.

6.  Naseeruddin Shah

Naseeruddin Shah is one of the most iconic Bollywood actor and director. He is widely considered to be one of the finest Indian stage and film actors. He is an influential actor of the Indian Parallel (New Wave) Cinema. Shah has won numerous awards in his career, including three National Film Awards, three Filmfare Awards for Best Actor, and a Best Actor Award (The Volpi Cup) at the Venice Film Festival. The Government of India has honoured him with both the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan civilian awards for his contributions to Indian cinema.

He first married Manara Sikri, Surekha Sikri’s step-sister. He has a daughter named Heeba Shah from his first marriage. He married Bollywood actress Ratna Pathak Shah in 1982 after the death of his first wife. He has two sons from his second marriage Imaad and Vivaan.

5.  Mithun Chakraborty

Gouranga Chakraborty better known by his stage name Mithun Chakraborty is an Indian film actor, social worker, and entrepreneur, who has won three National Film Awards. He made his acting debut with the arthouse drama Mrigayaa (1976), for which he won his first National Film Award for Best Actor.Chakraborty is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors in the history of Indian cinema.

He gained fans as a dancing star and went on to establish himself as one of the all time top ten greatest and most popular actors of India, particularly recognized for his role as the street dancer Jimmy in the 1982 Bollywood movie Disco Dancer. He also attracted worldwide audiences, particularly in the former Soviet Union where he became a household name for his role in Disco Dancer. He later won two more National Film Awards for his performances in Tahader Katha (1992) & Swami Vivekananda (1998).Chakraborty has appeared in about 350 films including Bengali, Oriya and Bhojpuri pictures.

During the 1980s, Chakraborty had a love affair with Sridevi. Sridevi had fallen in love with Chakraborty on the sets of Rakesh Roshan’s Jaag Utha Insan. Chakraborty and Sridevi became really close to each other. But when Yogeeta Bali, Chakraborty’s wife, got to know about the affair she said that she will never ever leave Chakraborty.

4.  Shahrukh Khan

The superstar, Most Iconic Bollywood Actor Shah Rukh Khan and informally referred as SRK, referred to in the media as “Badshah of Bollywood”, “King Khan” and “King of Romance”. Khan has acted in 75 Hindi films in genres ranging from romantic dramas to action thrillers. His contributions to the film industry have garnered him numerous achievements, including fourteen Filmfare Awards from thirty nominations. His eighth Filmfare Best Actor Award win made him the most awarded Bollywood actor of all time in that category, tied only with actor Dilip Kumar. In 2005, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri for his contributions towards Indian cinema.

Khan is considered to be one of the biggest film stars in cinematic history, with a fan following claimed to number in the billions; in 2011, the Los Angeles Times called him “the world’s biggest movie star.” He has also been regularly featured in the listing of the most powerful names in Indian Cinema and in 2008, Newsweek named him one of the 50 most powerful people in the world. Khan has an estimated net worth of over US $600 million(INR25 billion).

He married Gauri Khan on 25 October 1991. They have two children, son Aryan Khan (b. 1997), and daughter Suhana (b. 2000).

3.  Rajesh Khanna

Rajesh Khanna, the superstar of Indian Cinema, entered Hindi films in the latter half of the 1960s and did 180 films – 163 feature films and 17 short films. By 2011, he held record for maximum number of films as the solo lead hero and least number of multi star cast films in Hindi Cinema.

He was referred to as the “first superstar” and the “original superstar” of Indian cinema. He earned title of phenomenon following 15 consecutive solo hit films in the period 1969-72, a record that remains unbroken. Khanna is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors in the history of Indian cinema. He had 35 Golden Jubilee Hits (which means the films ran for more than 50 weeks in theatres across India) in the period 1967–1975, three more in 76–78 and 35 more in the period 1979–1991. He also had 22 silver jubilee hits (that is films ran in theatres for more than 25 weeks) in the period 1966–1991. He was the highest paid Indian actor from 1970–87 where Amitabh Bachchan shared the same tag with Khanna from 1980–87. He was also a Lok Sabha member of the Indian National Congress from New Delhi constituency from 1992 to 1996.

He married Dimple Kapadia in March 1973, 8 months before Dimple’s debut film Bobby was released and had two daughters from the marriage. Their elder daughter Twinkle Khanna is married to actor Akshay Kumar. After being critically ill, Khanna died on 18 July 2012. Khanna has been awarded posthumously India’s third highest civilan honour Padma Bhushan.

2.  Amitabh Bachchan

Amitabh Bachchan was born on October 11, 1942 in Allahabad. He is the son of late poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan and Teji Bachchan.

Bachchan made his Hollywood debut in 2013 with The Great Gatsby, in which he played a non-Indian Jewish character, Meyer Wolfsheim. He first gained popularity in the early 1970s as the “angry young man” of Hindi cinema, and has since appeared in over 180 Indian films in a career spanning more than four decades. Bachchan is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors in the history of Indian cinema. So total was his dominance of the movie scene in the 1970s and 1980s that the French director Francois Truffaut called him a “one-man industry”.

Bachchan is married to actress Jaya Bhaduri. The couple have two children, Shweta Nanda and Abhishek Bachchan. Abhishek is also an actor and is married to actress Aishwarya Rai.

1.  Dilip Kumar

Born as Muhammad Yusuf Khan in Qissa Khawani Bazaar in Peshawar Pakistan in a Pashtun family. Dilip Kumar is considered to be one of the greatest actors of Indian cinema.

He debuted as an actor in the movie Jwar Bhata (1944). He is known as Tragedy King, and was described as “the ultimate method actor” by Satyajit Ray. In a blog post, Amitabh Bachchan has described Dilip Kumar as the greatest actor ever. Dilip Kumar’s career has spanned six decades and over 60 films. Critics acclaimed him among one of the greatest actors in the history of Hindi cinema. Dilip Kumar is the first actor to receive a Filmfare Best Actor Award (1954) and shares the record for the most number of Filmfare awards won for that category with Shahrukh Khan. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan award in 1991 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1994 for his contributions towards Indian cinema and nominated him to Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Indian parliament for a term. He has retired from the Indian Film Industry in 1998.

Dilip Kumar was involved with actress Madhubala but they had to part ways as her family was opposed to their marriage. He married actress beauty queen Saira Banu, who was two decades younger than him in 1966 when she was 22. He married a second time in 1980 to Asma but the marriage ended soon after.

Top 10 Iconic Bollywood Actors