Celebrate Akshay Kumar's birthday with his hit songs!

From 'wooden' to 'wow,' it's been quite a trip. 

With no Godfather to guide or filmi surname to flaunt, Akshay Kumar, armed with a fabulous face and karate skills, shunned all criticism, steadfastly working towards brighter prospects through good, bad and awful films to become one of Bollywood's leading brands.

In a career spanning little less than 100 films, AK has decidedly grown and increased his range from action to comedy and romance.

The actor, producer and television host turns 44 today. Just the occasion, we thought, to play some of the most popular songs of his career.  

Khud ko kya samajhti hai, Khiladi

Khiladi marked a breakthrough in Akshay Kumar's till then insignificant career. The whodunit, inspired by Ravi Tandon's Khel Khel Mein, boasted of some peppy Jatin-Lalit songs. Akki, particularly, impressed with his energetic romp in the campus rage, Khud ko kya samajhti hai.

The explosive chemistry between Akshay and Raveena Tandon, coupled with its dazzling choreography, are hard to miss in Mohra's flamboyant qawaali, Tu cheez badi hai, which went on to become the chartbuster of 1994.

The long-limbed duo of Akshay and Shilpa Shetty shake a leg against a striking Mauritius to Anu Malik's ever-lively serenade, Churake dil mera.

Despite its loud, tacky contents, Sabse Bada Khiladi hit jackpot at the box office. One of its songs, Bholi bhali ladki, composed by Rajesh Roshan, became hugely popular.

Even though his was a special appearance, Akshay Kumar walked away with Uttam Singh's winsome title song in Yash Chopra's musical romance starring Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit and Karisma Kapoor.

Nadeem-Shravan's mellifluous tunes acted as one of the greatest USPs about Dharmesh Darshan's soppy albeit super-hit love triangle.

It also let our action hero lip-sync one of the most mellow love songs in the movie.

While Adnan Sami and Sunidhi Chauhan set the mercury rising in a recording studio, Akshay and debutante Bipasha Basu burned the dance floor to the catchy Mehbooba in Abbas-Mastan's version of Hollywood's Consenting Adults.

Pritam's breezy Ada ably captures the flirtatious agenda behind Akshay and John Abraham's hot photo shoot of semi-clad woman on the beach.

The Khiladi and his favourite girl, Katrina indulges in a cliched dancing-in-the-fields routine for Vipul Shah's Ludhiana-meets-London romance against Himesh Reshammiya's frothy creation. 

What's not to like about this insanely catchy track, picturised on a super groovy Akshay, from Priyadarshan's spooky comedy, Bhool Bhulaiyaa?

Khiladi Kumar and King Khan engage in some heavy-duty Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy generated balle balle to thrill crowds for Sajid Khan's hit comedy, Heyy Babyy.

No other film after this has been able to reinforce the enormous star power of Akshay since Singh is Kinng.

Apart from its wacky comic track, SIK has some seriously swell songs on its menu. And it doesn't get better than the title track featuring rap star Snoop Dogg, RDB and Akki himself.

The RDB-Akki combo teams up once again to provide the unbelievable inane De Dana Dan with its only redeeming quality -- the uber cool track, Paisa Paisa.

If only the tripe was as nifty as its video.

On paper, a Back to the Future-inspired fantasy starring Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan spells box office gold.

In trade, it amounts to pure turkey. Still, Daler Mehndi and Richa Sharma's zingy rendition of Zor ka jhatka is the only Replay-worthy portion of the movie.

While Katrina's jiggling belly hogged majority of the limelight in Sheila ki jawani, you cannot ignore Akki's constant disruptions as the hovering boyfriend of this sensational item number.

Join us as we wish the Khiladi a very happy birthday!