Ajay Devgn
Ajay Devgn is an actor, born 1969.
Born Vishal Virender Devgan in New Delhi in 1969, Ajay Devgn has spent a quarter of a century and more as one of the most durable leading men in Hindi cinema, with well over a hundred films behind him, National Film Awards and Filmfare Awards on the shelf, and the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour, awarded in 2016.
What separates him from his peers is stillness. Put Bajirao Singham, the roaring policeman he has now played across Singham, Singham Returns, Simmba, Sooryavanshi and Singham Again, next to Vijay Salgaonkar in Drishyam, a small-town cable operator who calmly lies to policemen for two hours, and the same engine is running underneath both. He is an actor who does not blink first, and Hindi cinema has built two entirely different franchises on that single quality.
The comedy is the other half. He has played Gopal in four Golmaal films, a strongman terrified of almost everything, and the joke works precisely because the audience knows the other Devgn. And the serious work is real, not a sideline: Omkara, a Shakespeare transposition where he takes the Othello role; Mallik in the gangster picture Company; Vanraj, the husband, in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam; Raincoat; Sooraj in Raajneeti; the title role in Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior.
He is now in the position very few actors reach, anchoring his own franchises (Raid and Raid 2, Bholaa, Shaitaan) while showing up in supporting roles in other people's biggest films, RRR and Gangubai Kathiawadi among them.
Movies (67)
- Dhamaal 4 (2026)
- Drishyam 3 (2026)
- RRR (2022)
- De De Pyaar De 2 (2025)
- Drishyam 2 (2022)
- Raid 2 (2025)
- Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022)
- Sooryavanshi (2021)
- Total Dhamaal (2019)
- Drishyam (2015)
- Raid (2018)
- Singham Again (2024)
- Son of Sardaar 2 (2025)
- Shaitaan (2024)
- Fitoor (2016)
- Shivaay (2016)
- Shivaay (2016)
- Golmaal 5
- Golmaal Again (2017)
- Kaal (2005)
- Simmba (2018)
- Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior (2020)
- Article 370 (2024)
- Singham (2011)
- Maidaan (2024)
- Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai (2010)
- Action Jackson (2014)
- Golmaal 3 (2010)
- Ready (2011)
- Raajneeti (2010)
TV (3)
Where to start with Ajay Devgn
Drishyam first, without hesitation. It is the best-constructed film he has led, a procedural about an ordinary man protecting his family through a police investigation, and his performance is almost entirely withheld: no speeches, no heroics, just a man who has decided what he is going to say. Drishyam 2 earns its existence, which sequels of this kind rarely do.
For the other mode, Singham is the purest version of the mass-market cop film he made inescapable, and Golmaal – Fun Unlimited is where the comedy franchise starts if farce is what you want. Then go to the serious middle of the career: Omkara and Company are the two performances that show what he can do when a director asks for something difficult, and Raid splits the difference between the two halves. RRR and Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior are the spectacle picks.