New Delhi: In his early days in Bollywood, actor Ajay Devgn built his image as an action star through his iconic leg-split balancing on two moving motorcycles in Phool Aur Kaante (1991). Decades later, however, it seems his career is riding on sequels. Where he once balanced on two different vehicles, Devgn now balances action and comedy sequels, rehashing the same formula, trope, and character.
From Singham, Raid, Drishyam to Dhamaal, Devgn has become one of Bollywood’s franchise stars. In 2026, he is set to release multiple follow-ups, including Drishyam 3 and Dhamaal 4.
The second part of his acting career started in 2006 with Rohit Shetty’s Golmaal: Fun Unlimited. The film stars Devgn along with Arshad Warsi, Sharman Joshi and Tusshar Kapoor. The story follows four friends—Gopal, Lucky, Madhav and Laxman—who are unemployed and broke. To tackle this problem, they secretly start living in a blind couple’s house.
When the original became a box office hit, collecting nearly Rs 100 crore against a budget of Rs 15 crore, the Golmaal franchise began. Golmaal Returns arrived in 2008, followed by Golmaal 3 (2010) and Golmaal Again (2017). The cast remained largely the same in the following films, except for Sharman Joshi, but now he is back for Golmaal 5, set to release next year.
The king of slapstick comedy
While Golmaal: Fun Unlimited was enjoying its blockbuster box office run, Devgn came up with another slapstick comedy, Dhamaal, in 2007. Directed by Indra Kumar, the film featured Devgn, Sanjay Dutt, Riteish Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi and Javed Jaffrey in comical roles. The story plays with similar themes of a group of unemployed and broke friends trying to get rich, but the film is said to be inspired by Jerry Zucker’s American film Rat Race (2001). Dhamaal became an instant success at the box office by collecting Rs 50 crore and was made on a budget of Rs 19 crore. Double Dhamaal arrived in 2011, following the same trope of broke friends trying to get rich. Interestingly, the sequel was a remake of the Tamil film Sudhandhiram (2001). Total Dhamaal followed in 2019 with Dhamaal 4 expected to hit theatres late 2026.
Director Ashwni Dhir’s Son of Sardaar was released in 2012, with Devgn in the lead. The film also stars Sanjay Dutt, Sonakshi Sinha and Juhi Chawla. The plot revolves around a rivalry between two families, but as Devgn and Sinha fall in love, an action-comedy unfolds. The film became a box office hit, collecting more than Rs 100 crore against a budget of Rs 67 crore.
In 2025, the film got its second part with the same title, featuring an ensemble cast including Mrunal Thakur, Ravi Kishan and Sanjay Mishra. The story is not connected but plays around the same theme of winning a girl’s family’s heart. The first part of the series was a remake of the Telugu film Maryada Ramanna (2010), while the second part is a remake of the Turkish comedy Aile Arasinda (2017).
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An action superstar
Devgn’s era of action franchises started with Singham, released in 2011. The film was the first instalment in Rohit Shetty’s cop universe and a remake of the 2010 Tamil film Singam. The story follows a cop who fights a corrupt politician, played by Prakash Raj, who also featured in the original Tamil version. The film collected over Rs 140 crore worldwide against a budget of Rs 40 crore.
The film’s success helped Devgn and Shetty establish a path for future sequels, which came in the form of Singham Returns (2014) and Singham Again (2024), both loosely following the same storyline.
In 2015, Devgn came as Drishyam, a remake of Mohanlal’s Malayalam film of the same title. The film revolves around a humble cable operator who hides the body of the son of a powerful politician after he blackmails his daughter. Over the years, both the Malayalam and Hindi versions of the story have continued with sequels. The first part of the Hindi version collected nearly Rs 100 crore worldwide against a budget of Rs 62 crore. Drishyam 3 is also releasing in theatres in 2026.
Impressed with his government officer avatar from Shetty’s cop universe, Devgn came up with a different idea in Raid (2018). This time, he fights a corrupt politician without wearing the uniform that made him famous in Singham. He plays an income tax officer posted in Lucknow who carries out India’s biggest raid on a local politician. The film was made on a budget of Rs 70 crore and ended up collecting nearly Rs 150 crore worldwide. Raid 2 followed in 2025, with Riteish Deshmukh playing the corrupt politician, while the storyline remained similar to the first part.
Finally, in 2019, he mixed comedy, romance and drama with De De Pyaar De, directed by Akiv Ali. In an unexpected twist, Devgn played a fresh character—a divorced NRI who tries to make peace between his estranged wife and his girlfriend, who is half his age. Made on a budget of Rs 75 crore, the film collected nearly Rs 120 crore worldwide. The second part of the film was released last year with the same title.
Over the years, Devgn has also acted in original films like Shivaay (2016), Maidaan (2024), Azaad (2025) and Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha (2025), which have not yet been converted into sequel machines. This may be due to their box office performance. For instance, Maidaan collected only around Rs 53 crore despite being made on a budget of nearly Rs 200 crore, while the other films also followed a similar trajectory.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)