How Ajay Devgn's Singham laid the foundation for Akshay Kumar's Sooryavanshi. On Throwback Thursday

As Akshay Kumar gears up for Sooryavanshi's release, we take a look back at how Ajay Devgn's Singham laid the foundation of Rohit Shetty's cop universe.

We all have seen superheroes wear caps, but in Bollywood, we see them in police uniforms. From Aamir Khan's Sarfarosh to Amitabh Bachchan's Zanjeer, cop-centric films have always managed to create quite a stir. They have also been sure-shot blockbusters. But making a cop film is one thing and building a franchise out of it is another, as Rohit Shetty will tell you.

After working with Ajay Devgn in three back-to-back Golmaal films, the director-actor duo sat down for some serious business, leading them to Singham. Little did they know that the film will lay the foundation of yet another franchise. But it wasn't easy. With Salman Khan's Dabangg franchise taking shape and other cop-centric films releasing more frequently than not, the market was swamped with men in khaki. Rohit and his writers needed a character that would make the audience laugh but at the same time earn their respect by thrashing goons like a punching bag - and they crafted exactly that and named him Inspector Bajirao Singham.