Siddharth Malhotra

Sidharth Malhotra (; born 16 January 1985) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. He began his career as a fashion model, but left it to pursue an acting career. He made his acting debut with a minor role in the television serial ''Dharti Ka Veer Yodha Prithviraj Chauhan'' in 2009 before assisting director Karan Johar on the 2010 film ''My Name Is Khan''. He had his first lead role in Johar's teen film ''Student of the Year'' (2012).

Malhotra went on to star in such commercially successful films as ''Hasee Toh Phasee'' (2014), ''Ek Villain'' (2014), and ''Kapoor & Sons'' (2016). Following a career downturn, he gained praise for starring as Vikram Batra in the war film ''Shershaah'' (2021), earning a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor.

Early life

Malhotra was born and raised in Delhi, India into a Punjabi Hindu family, to Sunil, a former captain in the Merchant Navy, and Rimma Malhotra, a homemaker. He was schooled at Delhi's Don Bosco School and Naval Public School, and graduated from Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi.
At the age of 18, he began modelling. Although he was successful, he decided to quit after four years because he was dissatisfied with the profession.

Career

Debut and breakthrough (2012–2015)

Malhotra had his first acting role in 2009 in the television serial ''Dharti Ka Veer Yodha Prithviraj Chauhan'', in which he played the small role of Jaichand. Interested in further pursuing an acting career, he successfully auditioned for a film to be directed by Anubhav Sinha. However, the film was shelved, following which he worked as an assistant director to Karan Johar on the 2010 film ''My Name Is Khan''. Eventually, in 2012, he made his acting debut with Johar's teen drama ''Student of the Year'' alongside co-debutantes Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt. He was cast as Abhimanyu Singh, a scholarship student of limited financial means, who competes with his wealthy best friend Rohan Nanda (Dhawan) to win an annual school championship. Film critic Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN considered his performance to be "earnest", adding that he had "a pleasing presence." ''Student of the Year'' was a financial success, grossing Worldwide.

Following a year-long absence from the screen, similar to that of co-stars Bhatt and Dhawan who had their second releases after him, Malhotra next starred opposite Parineeti Chopra and Adah Sharma in the 2014 romantic comedy ''Hasee Toh Phasee'', which tells the love story of a scientist and an under-confident aspiring businessman. Mohar Basu of Koimoi found his performance to be "restrained" and described his chemistry with Chopra as "lively" and "heartfelt"; Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV praised his screen presence and compared it to the early work of Amitabh Bachchan. The film performed moderately well at the box office, with global revenues of .

Malhotra's second release of 2014 was the Mohit Suri-directed romantic thriller ''Ek Villain'', which saw him portray Guru Divekar, a hardened criminal whose terminally-ill wife Aisha Verma (Shraddha Kapoor). Shubhra Gupta of ''The Indian Express'' reviewed his performance as "watchable even if he has a hard time doing menace — he just seems so nice and wholesome all the time, even when he is crunching bones." The film became a commercial success with worldwide revenues of over . The box office performance of the film established him as one of the new generation of actors of Hindi Cinema.

Malhotra next appeared in a 2015 remake of the 2011 American film ''Warrior'', titled ''Brothers'', directed by Karan Malhotra and co-starring Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez and Jackie Shroff. The film received negative reviews and under-performed at the box office, but was noted for its performances, particularly Malhotra's and his chemistry with co-star Akshay Kumar.

Career fluctuations (2016–2020)

Malhotra's next release, the Shakun Batra-directed family drama ''Kapoor & Sons'', proved to be a critical and commercial success, grossing 1.53 billion worldwide. Featuring an ensemble cast including Rishi Kapoor, Ratna Pathak Shah, Rajat Kapoor, Fawad Khan, and Alia Bhatt, the film tells the story of two brothers of contrasting personalities (Malhotra and Khan) who return home to their dysfunctional family after their grandfather suffers from a cardiac arrest. A reviewer for ''India Today'' thought that Malhotra was overshadowed by Khan in the film, though Namrata Joshi of ''The Hindu'' wrote that "he holds his own with his solid presence and vulnerable glances".

Malhotra followed the success of ''Kapoor & Sons'' with a starring role in the romantic comedy ''Baar Baar Dekho'' alongside Katrina Kaif, as a mathematician who travels in time. The film was produced by Karan Johar under the banner of Dharma Productions and Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani under the banner of Excel Entertainment. Directed by Nitya Mehra, the film opened to mixed to negative reviews from the critics and flopped at the box office. Later in 2017, he starred in dual roles for the first time in the action comedy ''A Gentleman'' with Jacqueline Fernandez from the writer-director duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K., which was produced by Fox Star Studios and released on 25 August 2017 worldwide; although highly anticipated, it opened to a poor reception. Both the films underperformed at the box office.

Abhay Chopra's '' 2017 remake'' of the 1969 mystery film '' Ittefaq'' starred Malhotra opposite Sonakshi Sinha. Released on 3 November 2017, the film held an approval rating of 90% from Rotten Tomatoes based on 5 reviews but failed at the box office with a lifetime collection of 500 million.

Neeraj Pandey's '' Aiyaary'', released on 16 February 2018, featured Malhotra along with Manoj Bajpayee and Rakul Preet Singh. The film opened on a note of 30 Million and collected 183.1 million, eventually emerging as a mediocre success. Bollywood Hungama, in a negative review said that "On the whole, Aiyaary misses the mark and is a huge letdown on the account of its flawed script and the lengthy run time" Malhotra's two releases of 2019 were poorly received by critics and audiences alike and were deemed box office failures. He first starred in the romantic-comedy ''Jabariya Jodi'', his second collaboration with Parineeti. The film was released on 9 August 2019 to negative reviews and was considered a flop. His second appearance was in Milap Milan Zaveri's masala actioner ''Marjaavaan'', co-starring Tara Sutaria, Rakul Preet Singh and Riteish Deshmukh, which released on 15 November 2019.

''Shershaah'' and beyond (2021–present)

In 2021, Malhotra had a lead role in the biographical-action film ''Shershaah'', based on the life of the Indian army officer, Param Vir Chakra (PVC) Vikram Batra. After several delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film premiered on 12 August 2021 on Amazon Prime Video. It received mixed reviews from critics. However, praise was directed at Malhotra's performance in particular. ''Shershaah'' was the most watched Indian film on the platform in India at the time of its release.

Malhotra's sole film release of 2022 was the fantasy comedy '' Thank God'', co-starring Ajay Devgn, which failed commercially. He will next star in ''Mission Majnu'', a spy thriller which will stream on Netflix. Malhotra will also star in the action film '' Yodha'', and in '' Indian Police Force'', a web series for Amazon Prime Video from director Rohit Shetty.

Other work

In 2013, Malhotra collaborated with PETA for a campaign to spread awareness about dogs sterilisation. Later that year, he participated in a stage show in Hong Kong alongside Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt and performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Bhatt, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. In August 2016, he performed in various cities of America for the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside Johar, the actors Dhawan, Bhatt, Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, and the singer Badshah.

In the media

* 2014: Times of India's Most Desirable Men of 2013 #11
* 2013: Times of India's Most Desirable Men of 2012 #12
*2013: The Times of India Hotlist Most Promising Newcomer 2012 :#3
*2013: The Times of India 50 Handsome Hunks in 100 years of Indian Cinema :#27

Filmography

Films

Television

Music videos

See also

* List of Indian film actors

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malhotra, Sidharth
Punjabi Hindus
1985 births
Living people
21st-century Indian male actors
Indian male film actors
Indian male models
Male actors in Hindi cinema
Male actors from Delhi
Punjabi people
People from Delhi