Abhay Verma had no franchise history, no star surname, and no theatrical track record before Munjya. The film ended up collecting over Rs 107 crore net in India and roughly Rs 132 crore worldwide, and suddenly a newcomer with none of the usual advantages had a hit to his name that most launched stars would envy.

He's not the only one who's got there this way.

Ali Fazal built Guddu Pandit into a character viewers quote back at him, from the hairstyle to the dialogues, across four seasons of Mirzapur. That popularity didn't stay on streaming. Mirzapur The Movie crossed the Rs 100 crore mark in India during its opening run, proof that a character built on a platform can pull audiences into a hall.

Kartik Aaryan's arc runs differently. He spent years working the middle rungs before Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 handed him a franchise to lead outright, and he came out the other side as someone the industry now bets on to open big.

Rajkummar Rao took the longest route of the lot, years of performance-first roles before Stree turned into a horror-comedy that crossed Rs 100 crore on its own, with the sequel expanding his commercial footprint further. What makes his case different is that the commercial success never came at the cost of the acting choices, he's kept working across registers rather than chasing scale alone.

Ayushmann Khurrana went the other way entirely, building his name on subjects the industry once considered risky. Dream Girl and Bala both crossed Rs 100 crore in the same year, and between them they made the case that unconventional stories could still fill theatres.

Then there's Pankaj Tripathi, who spent a decade as a supporting face before OMG 2 pushed him into leading commercial territory, netting over Rs 150 crore in India and crossing Rs 220 crore worldwide. Kaleen Bhaiya to OMG 2 is a fair summary of how far the definition of a bankable Bollywood star has shifted, character actors now carry films the way leading men used to.

What ties these six together isn't genre or years in the industry. None of them walked in with a launch vehicle built by a production house that already knew their surname. Ali Fazal came through streaming, Kartik Aaryan through relatability, Rajkummar Rao through performance, Ayushmann Khurrana through subject choice, Pankaj Tripathi through sheer repetition, and Abhay Verma simply by being in the right horror-comedy at the right time.

The pattern raises an obvious question for the trade heading into the next round of releases. If audiences keep showing up for actors on the strength of the part rather than the pedigree, casting decisions for 2027 slates will have to reckon with that math. Whoever gets picked next to lead a mid-budget franchise without a famous last name is, in effect, this list's seventh name waiting to happen.