Looking at Akshay Kumar's Khiladi Avatars Over the Years

Akshay Kumar's new film Khiladi 786 marks his return to his most famous onscreen avatar after 12 years.

In this Ashish R Mohan's directorial debut, Akshay plays a wise-cracking cop and romances his Housefull costar Asin.

Here's looking at the actor's long filmi association with Khiladi and the journey so far.

In the Niraj Vora directed Khiladi 420, Akshay plays a con man who falls in love with a rich man's daughter (Mahima Chaudhry) and tries to mend his ways.

The actor performed some of the most dangerous stunts of his career for this film.

Akshay's wife and former actress Twinkle Khanna starred in this 1999 action thriller along side the actor.

In a bizarre story, Khanna's character -- a news reporter -- is asked to interview Devraj (Kumar) the biggest criminal in the world.

The pair fall in love when they meet for the interveiw.

The only comedy film in the Khiladi series, Mr And Mrs Khiladi introduced Akshay's comic timing to the audience when he was largely seen as an action hero.

Giving him able support was the bubbly Juhi Chawla, who played a fiesty daughter of a rich businessman.

The fourth movie in the series, Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi went on to become one of the highest grossing films of the year.

The film also marked Rekha's first negative role and was particularly famous for her steamy scenes with Akshay.

The film featured real wrestling champions like Crush and Undertaker.

Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi also starred Raveena Tandon in the lead role.

What stood out in this 1995 Akshay Kumar and Mamta Kulkarni starrer was the Bholi bhaali ladki song that was quite a rage when the film released.

The film's story was adapted from a Hindi novel called Lallu written by a popular pulp fiction writer named Ved Prakash Sharma.

This action comedy film went on to become the fifth highest grossing film of the year.

Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan's onscreen shenanigans and chemistry were a big hit at the box office. The film also starred Shilpa Shetty.

Quite fittingly, the first film in the long-running series is set in college, where the four lead actors -- Akshay, Ayesha Jhulka, Deepak Tijori and Sabeeha -- play students.

The suspense thriller was a critical and commercial success.