Ankur Vikal
Ankur Vikal is an Indian film and theatre actor.
Early life
He graduated from the National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi in 2000, after studying Architecture at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. He has acted in the Motley Theatre Group in plays such as Manto Ismat Haazir Hain, Safed Jhooth Kaali Shalwar, Katha Kollage II, All Thieves, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, and Salome. His film career began with the Indian ground-breaking film Mango Soufflé, followed by the highly acclaimed films Maqbool and Missed Call.
Ankur played the role of Maman in Slumdog Millionaire (2008). It was nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 2009 and won 8- the most for any 2008 film-including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best adapted screenplay. It won 7 BAFTA awards including Best Film, 5 Critic's Choice Awards, and four Golden Globes. In the film, he discovers the children while they are living in the trash heaps and brings them to his Orphanage. He won a Screen Actor's Guild Award for his highly acclaimed and appreciated performance as Maman.
He also played the lead in The Forest. He was most recently seen in Telugu language film Kedi and Hindi film Striker. In Tamil cinema he debuted in Mariyan (2013) where he played the role of an oil worker.
He played Yakub, the antagonist terrorist leader, in Anil Kapoor's TV Series 24.
Ankur has been working and touring with Nirbhaya. The play has been called one of the most important pieces on Human Rights in the world. Ankur is the only male actor in it. He acts with 5 actresses sharing their personal stories of Sexual Abuse. It has won the Fringe First Award, An Amnesty International and a Herald Angel when it opened in Edinburgh. It has been touring extensively in India, Europe and North America. A New York Times Critic's Pick, it is highly acclaimed and has been running successfully to full houses all over the world.
Filmography
Film
- Mango Soufflé (2002) as Kamlesh
- Maqbool (2003) as Riyaz Boti
- Missed Call (2005) as Gaurav Sengupta
- Slumdog Millionaire (2008) as Maman
- The Forest (2009) as Pritam
- Striker (2010, Hindi) as Zaid
- Kedi (2010, Telugu) as Chandra
- Breaking the way (2010, Short) as Ashok
- Maryan (2013, Tamil)
- Yamdas (2014) as Darshan
- Unfreedom (2014) as Najeeb
- Bang Bang (2014, Hindi) as Shoaib
- Jazbaa (2015, Hindi) as Vijay
- Blemished Light (2015) as Najib
- Train Station (2015) as Brown (India)
- Sold (2016) as Varun
- Phobia (2016, Hindi) as Manu Malhotra
- Indu Sarkar (2017, Hindi) as Shivam
- Love Sonia (2018) as Hotel Manager
- Mehandi Circus (2019, Tamil) as Jadhav
- Cookie (2020) as Mokashe
- Yaara (2020) as Fakira/ Durrani
- Ishq Fitoori(2020) as Bhurelal/Lord Ram
- Toolsidass Junior(2020) as K.K.Burman
- Doosra(2020)as Mr.Agarwal
- Saina(2020) Jeevan Kumar, Saina's Coach
Web Series
- Paatal Lok(2020) on Amazon Prime as Kana Cammando
- Betaal(2020) on Netflix as Bhunnu
Television
- 2013: 24 as Yakub Sayeed