Kunal Kapoor

Kunal Raj Kapoor (born 18 October 1977) is an Indian actor, writer and an entrepreneur. Kunal has acted in Hindi, Malayalam and Telugu movies. He is the co-founder of the crowdfunding platform Ketto.

Not to be confused with Kunaal Roy Kapur or Kunal Kapoor (actor).

Kunal Kapoor
Born
Kunal Raj Kapoor

(1977-10-18) 18 October 1977
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Years active2005–present
Spouse(s)
Naina Bachchan
(
m. 2015)

Early life

Kapoor was born in Mumbai on 18 October 1977. His father, Rajkishore Kapoor was in the construction business and his mother, Kanan is a singer and homemaker. His parents are originally from Amritsar, Punjab. He is the youngest of three children, with two sisters Geeta and Reshma. In February 2015, he married Naina Bachchan, niece of Amitabh Bachchan, in a private family ceremony in Seychelles.[1]

Acting career

Kapoor trained for an acting career under Barry John, and became a part of Motley, a theatre group run by acting legend Naseeruddin Shah.[2] He began his career as an assistant director of Aks, which starred Manoj Bajpayee and in which Amitabh Bachchan played a major character.

Kapoor made his movie debut as the male lead opposite Tabu in Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities (2005) which was helmed by painter MF Hussain. His next film was the Aamir Khan starrer Rang De Basanti (2006), for which he received a nomination in the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award category. The film was successful both critically and commercially, and it was nominated in the Best Foreign Film category at the 2007 BAFTA Awards.[3]

Yash Raj Films (YRF) studio subsequently signed Kapoor for a three-film contract. He appeared in films like Laaga Chunari Mein Daag (2007), Aaja Nachle (2007) and Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008). After this, Kapoor took a break for two years, and then appeared in national award winner Rahul Dholakia's Lamhaa (2010) starring Sanjay Dutt. The film didn't do well but Kapoor received accolades for his performance as a young Kashmiri politician. Critics hailed it as "One of the most powerful performances of the year". That same year, Kapoor voiced the Indian God Rama in Mahayoddha Rama, an animation film made by Raizada Rohit Jaising Vaid.[4] In 2011, he appeared in the Shahrukh Khan starrer Don 2, where his performance was appreciated.[5]

In 2012, Kapoor played the lead role in Sameer Sharma's light-hearted comedy film Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana which he co-wrote. The film received positive reviews and was hailed by critics as being amongst the ten best films of the year. The New York Times reviewed it favourably and called Kapoor the Indian Matthew McConaughey.[6] In 2014, he appeared in the off-beat comedy film Kaun Kitne Paani Mein.

Kapoor's next films to release were the epic action trilingual film, Veeram, directed by National Award winner Jayaraj, Gauri Shinde's next and Tigmanshu Dhulia's war drama Raagdesh based on the Indian National Army trials. In 2017, he starred in Gold based on the first Indian hockey team to win a Gold at the Olympics, the film saw him pairing up with Akshay Kumar for the first time. It was released on 15 August 2018.

Other work

Kapoor has endorsed popular brands like Thums Up, Indian Terrain, Ray-Ban, Mahindra Logan and Save the Children charity along with Gwyneth Paltrow.

In 2009, Kapoor started writing weekly columns for HT City, the lifestyle supplement of the Hindustan Times. These columns ended in November 2009 but still appear online on the social network Desimartini.[7]

He is a trained pilot, and rally car driver. In 2014, he started training for the Formula Three. He co-founded Asia's largest crowdfunding platform called Ketto,[8] which raises money for social and individual causes. To date, the platform has raised close to 120 million dollars.

He is also known for his style and has been voted amongst the most stylish men in the country. Recently he was on GQ's list of the top ten stylish men in the country.

Filmography

Actor
Year Title Role Notes
2005 Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities Kameshwar Mathur
2006 Rang De Basanti Aslam / Ashfaqulla Khan Nominated, Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award
2007 Hattrick Saby aka Sarbjeet Singh
2007 Laaga Chunari Mein Daag Vivaan Varma
2007 Aaja Nachle Imran Pathan
2008 Bachna Ae Haseeno Joginder Ahluwalia
2008 Welcome to Sajjanpur Bansi Ram
2010 Lamhaa Aatif
2011 Don 2 Sameer Ali
2012 Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana Omi Khurana
2015 Kaun Kitne Paani Mein Raj Singhdeo
2016 Dear Zindagi Raghuvendra
2017 Veeram Chandu Chekavar Malayalam film
2017 Raag Desh General Shahnawaz
2018 Gold Samrat
2018 Devadas David Telugu film
2018 Noblemen Murali Hindi film

Assistant director
Year Title Director Notes
2001 Aks Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

Awards and nominations
  • 2006: Star's Sabsey Favourite Naya Hero[9]
  • 2007: Stardust Breakthrough Performance, Male[10]
Year Award Category Film Result Ref.
2005 Zee Cine Awards Best Newcomer Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities Nominated
2007 Filmfare Awards Best Supporting Actor Rang De Basanti Nominated
International Indian Film Academy Awards Best Supporting Actor Nominated
2017 Asiavision Awards Outstanding performance of the year Veeram Won [11]
2019 Toronto international South Asian film awards Special jury award Won [12]
South Indian International Movie Awards Best Actor in a Negative Role – Telugu Devadas Nominated [13]
gollark: Then `rm -rf /*`.
gollark: Try killing every process and seeing what happens.
gollark: Amazing.
gollark: Help with what?
gollark: <@111569489971159040> Would you be interested in helping with SMT over skynet?

See also

References
  1. "Kunal Kapoor weds Amitabh Bachchan's niece". ABP News. 11 February 2015. Archived from the original on 21 December 2016. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  2. Paitandy, Priyadarshini (7 June 2008). "Cool Kunal". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 11 June 2008. Retrieved 6 October 2008.
  3. "'Rang De Basanti' loses at BAFTA awards". The Hindu. Press Trust of India. 13 February 2007. Archived from the original on 8 November 2012. Retrieved 6 October 2008.
  4. Reddy, Sujata (4 August 2008). "Ramayana returns". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 16 September 2008. Retrieved 6 October 2008.
  5. Don 2 review; critics reviews of Don 2 movie Archived 7 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  6. "NY Times Movie Review". Archived from the original on 14 August 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  7. "Kunal Kapoor columns". Desimartini. Archived from the original on 30 July 2009. Retrieved 24 October 2008.
  8. "Speaker Profile of Kunal Kapoor at Etailing India". ETailing India. Archived from the original on 10 February 2017.
  9. Gupta, Pratim D. (9 May 2006). "Pop poll of the star-struck". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 19 May 2006. Retrieved 6 October 2008.
  10. Shah, Diti; Navgire, Moses (26 February 2007). "Mumbai hosts Max Stardust awards". Tonight. Retrieved 6 October 2008.
  11. "Asiavision Movie Awards 2017: Deepika Padukone, Dulquer Salmaan, Manju Warrier, Tovino Thomas grace event [PHOTOS]". International Business Times. 28 November 2017. Archived from the original on 22 June 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
  12. "TISFA Winners: See the Full List". Toronto international South Asian film awards. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
  13. "SIIMA Awards 2019: Here's a complete list of nominees". Times of India. 19 July 2019. Archived from the original on 1 August 2019. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
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