Akshay Kumar's next film, Patiala House, is being touted as a father-son drama.

It is keeping this in mind that we thought about the various actors who have played father to Akshay over the last decade or so.

Not content with a list, we decided also to rate them -- but as always, dear reader, feel free to express your views below.

Here, then, are the actors who have played dad to Akki, with mixed results:

Amitabh Bachchan  

Bollywood's most-high profile father figure, Bachchan's played dad to Akshay twice, in Waqt: The Race Against Time and Ek Rishta: The Bond Of Love.

Vipul Shah's Waqt was one where they shared a buddy-buddy relationship before it all went seriously south.

Bachchan's more than well suited to play Kumar's father. Both are tall alpha males with aggressive personalities, and their on-screen dynamic is pretty strong.

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Kapoor, currently in the acting form of his career, is playing Kumar's father in the upcoming father-son cricket drama, Patiala House.

Kapoor's a reliable father figure and has outgrown his lovable-drunk stereotype over the last few years, and so should be interesting to watch.

One can also expect Kapoor and Kumar to bond as hardcore Punjabis in a film titled Patiala House, and it should potentially be a pretty warm father-son experience.

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Okay, Rawal hasn't quite played Kumar's actual father yet, but in comedies like Hera Pheri and Welcome, he's the closest thing Kumar's character has to a father-figure.

Especially in Hera Pheri, his Marathi garagewallah is a barrel of laughs, and a perfect foil to Kumar's unscrupulous scamster.

Rawal and Kumar have done dozens of comedies together and have great on-screen chemistry, but it'd really help if they didn't do the same films over and over again.

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Puri, among the most versatile of Indian actors, played Kumar's best friend in Singh Is Kinng but recently, in Vipul Shah's Action Replayy, was given the father's role.

He played a gruff, domineering dad constantly rebuking and bullying Kumar, who played a wimpy son.

As said, Puri's one of the best actors in the biz, and could probably play a super dad to anyone... but he just hasn't gotten a well-written part with Akshay yet.

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In Nikhil Advani's ill-fated dud Chandni Chowk To China, Chakraborty plays Kumar's adoptive father, an Old Delhi dhaba owner who can kick people high into the sky.

Loony shenanigans aside, it is his death that inspires a tearful Akshay to wreak vengeance upon the villain.

Chakraborty isn't altogether bad, clearly relishing the kicking, but there's little that works in this pairing. Kumar and Mithun both up the emotional ante, but it leaves audiences very cold.

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