Interestingly, Akshay will not be joining the Golmaal gang, so to speak, which already consists of Devgn, Arshad Warsi (Akshay’s co-star in Jolly LLB), Kunal Kemmu, Tusshar Kapoor and Shreyas Talpade. Instead, he will play the main antagonist in Golmaal 5, according to Variety India. In the previous installation, Golmaal Again (2017), Neil Nitin Mukesh and Prakash Raj played the antagonists.

Akshay’s rare villainous turn

There are only a few films in which Akshay has played an outright villain, and that has always attracted attention. The first instance was when he was revealed as the antagonist in Abbas-Mustan’s 2001 action thriller Ajnabee, facing off against Bobby Deol. Seventeen years later, she played the main antagonist Pakshi Rajan in S Shankar’s 2018 Tamil sci-fi action blockbuster 2.0 against Rajinikanth’s robot Chitti.

Akshay may be entering his villain era now as he is all set to play the baddie in Priyadarshan’s upcoming action thriller. Haiwaanwith her Main Khiladi Tu Anari (1994) co-star Saif Ali Khan on the other side. After his mysterious cameo in Amar Kaushik’s 2024 hit horror comedy Stree 2, producer Dinesh Vijan of Maddock Films touted Akshay as the Thanos of his horror comedy Maddock universe.

While the exact genre of Golmaal 5 is yet to be known (the previous installment was a horror-comedy), but since comedy is in the DNA of this franchise, Akshay is all set to make his presence felt as a formidable antagonist also due to his impeccable and unparalleled comic timing. After a string of dramas, Akshay also recently made a much-awaited return to comedies with Housefull 4 and Welcome to the Jungle.

Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn reunite

It will be interesting to see Akshay and Ajay reunite once again, in what will be their sixth outing together. They first shared screen space in Kuku Kohli’s 1994 action film Suhaag, followed by Rajkumar Satoshi’s 2004 political crime action film Khakee, and the flop that was K Subhash’s 2005 action-crime thriller Insan.

Ajay and Akshay also appeared in cameos in Sooryavanshi (2021) and Singham Again (2024), both part of Shetty’s cop universe. A couple of years ago, when Ajay and Akshay appeared at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, they also announced that Akshay will soon star in a film directed by Ajay, who previously directed action thrillers like Shivaay (2016) and Bholaa (2023).

It would also be a pleasure to see Ajay directing Akshay in an action thriller, but before we get there, they will probably be seen trading blows in Golmaal 5. The lead cast is also expected to return for the fifth installment, and Sharman Joshi (who was part of the gang in the first installment) is also likely to return to the franchise after almost 20 years.

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Another sequel from Ajay Devgn

If there is another actor who has beaten Akshay to star in a sequel series lately, it is Ajay. The streak started with Singham Again a couple of years ago. Sequels dominated last year as Ajay reprized his memorable roles in Raj Kumar Gupta’s hit crime thriller Raid 2, Vijay Kumar Arora’s comedy Son of Sardaar 2 and Anshul Sharma’s family comedy De De Pyaar De 2. This year, he is also set to star in the fourth installment of Indra Kumar’s comedy Dhamaal and the third installment of Abhishek Pathak’s crime thriller. Drishyam.

Golmaal 5 is likely to release later this month in Goregaon Film City. Bombay. It will likely be released in theaters early next year.