Adarsh Gourav Bhagavatula (born 1994) is an Indian actor and singer who works in
Hindi
Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
and English films. Gourav is best known for his portrayal of Mohit Chadda in the Hindi thriller film ''
Mom'' (2017), and of Balram Halwai in American drama film ''
The White Tiger A white tiger is a tiger with a genetic condition affecting its pelt's pigmentation.
White tiger, White Tiger or The White Tiger may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Characters
* White Tiger (comics), various Marvel Comics superhero ...
'' (2020), which garnered him international acclaim, and nominations for the
BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Best Actor in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film Award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.
Superlatives
Note: ...
, and the
Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.
Early life and education
Adarsh Gourav Bhagavatula was born into a
Telugu
Telugu may refer to:
* Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India
*Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India
* Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language
** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode
S ...
family in
Jamshedpur, India. His father Satishnarayan Bhagavatula is from
Srikakulam district and his mother Padmavati hails from
Vizianagaram
Vizianagaram is a city and the headquarters of Vizianagaram district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is central Eastern Ghats, about west of the Bay of Bengal and north-northeast of Visakhapatnam. The city has a population of 228,02 ...
in
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
. Gourav was brought up in
Jamshedpur and studied in Loyola School, Jamshedpur. He later moved to
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...
and studied at
Narsee Monjee College
Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics (also known as NM College) is a premier college for commerce and economics affiliated to University of Mumbai. The college was established in 1964 by Shri Vile Parle Kelavani Mandal. It was award ...
.
In 2007, when Gourav's father, who was an employee of The
Central Bank of India
Central Bank of India (CBI) is an Indian public sector bank based in Mumbai. Despite its name, it is not the central bank of India; The Indian central bank is the Reserve Bank of India.
History
The Central Bank of India was established on ...
, got transferred to Mumbai, the family decided to relocate. He studied at the
Lilavatibai Podar High School
Smt. Lilavatibai Podar HighSchool, (LPHS), is a co-educational, English medium institution for grades 1 through 12. It is a private, ICSE, unaided, independent, day-boarding school, registered with the state of Maharashtra. LPHS is located in ...
. While singing in the
Kala Ghoda Arts Festival
The Kala Ghoda Arts Festival is annual festival, nine days long, commencing always on the first Saturday of February and closing is always on the second Sunday in February, in the Kala Ghoda area of South Mumbai, India.
From its inception in ...
2007, he was spotted and asked if he wanted to try acting. He agreed only because he was excited to be on television. After a year of auditioning, he was cast as the young Shahrukh Khan in the film
''My Name is Khan''.
He studied in The Drama School in Mumbai.
Career
He was scouted to sing for Raell Padamsee's theatre company. He also sang for films like Black and White and Chal Chalein.
Although his acting career began when he was 14, Adarsh seriously started pursuing acting when he was cast to play one of the primary characters in a film titled "Banana", produced by
John Abraham
John Abraham (born 17 December 1972) is an Indian actor, film producer, writer and former model working in Hindi films. He has won a National Film Award and received five Filmfare nominations.
After modelling for advertisements and companies, ...
Entertainment and directed by Sajid Ali. While in his final year of college at
Narsee Monjee College of Commerce, he worked with
Anurag Kashyap in his short film "Clean Shaven" with
Radhika Apte
Radhika Apte (born 7 September 1985) is an Indian actress. She works predominantly in Hindi films, and has appeared in a few Tamil, Marathi, Telugu, Bengali, and English-language films. She began acting in theatre and made her film debut with a ...
. The next year he was cast as the lead in ''
Rukh'' alongside
Manoj Bajpayee
Manoj Bajpayee (born 23 April 1969), also transliterated as Manoj Bajpai, is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Hindi cinema and has also done Telugu and Tamil language films. Regarded as one of the finest actors of Hindi cinema, he i ...
and as one of the antagonists in
Sridevi's ''
Mom''.
To work on his craft, he took a break and went to The Drama School Mumbai in 2016. After finishing school, he worked in the Amazon production "Die Trying" and the
TVF production ''
Hostel Daze''. He also played Prince Tarquin in the NCPA production "Lucrece" directed by Paul Goodwin in 2017. In 2018, he worked with Academy nominee
Deepa Mehta on her Netflix series ''
Leila''.
After a few months of not being able to find any acting work, he was called in for an audition of ''The White Tiger''. His portrayal of Balram Halwai in the Netflix film has been lauded by all as the "star of Ramin Bahrani's film",
with the Evening Standard saying, "Gourav is nuanced and utterly engaging as Balram Halwai, a bright peasant who morphs from lickspittle chauffeur into something more ruthless.
" and Variety calling it a "small marvel".
The Telegraph said Gourav "gives the definition of a breakthrough performance"
The Entertainment Weekly called him "a largely unknown actor whose soulful combination of sheer will and vulnerability should, in a just world, win him the kind of accolades that helped make Slumdog's Dev Patel a star.
For his performance, Gourav was nominated for the
Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead and was also nominated for the BAFTA for
Best Actor.
In May 2023, he was a part of Audible's podcast series called ''Desi Down Under'', along with Taaruk Raina and
Prajakta Koli
Prajakta Koli, known for her YouTube Channel MostlySane, is an Indian YouTuber and actress who makes comedy videos. Her videos are focused mostly on relatable and observational comedy related to daily life situations.
Early life
Koli was born ...
. The story is set in Sydney about three 20 year olds from Mangalore who go to Australia to learn surf-lifesaving skills at Coogee Beach.
Singing career
Gourav learnt Hindustani classical music for nine years under different Gurus.
In college, he was the lead vocalist for a progressive rock band called "Oak Island".
He started getting interested in Western music while in Junior college and sang for the college band "Steepsky". They recorded a single called "Good guys finish last". In college, he sang for a progressive rock band called "Oak Island" which was also featured in ''MTV Indies-Never Hide Sounds''.
Filmography
Films
Web series
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gourav, Adarsh
Living people
1994 births
Indian male film actors
Telugu male actors
Indian male singers
Male actors in Hindi cinema
21st-century Indian male child actors
21st-century Indian male actors
Male actors from Jharkhand