Kunal Kapoor


Kunal Raj Kapoor 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.

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.

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. 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 which was helmed by painter MF Hussain. His next film was the Aamir Khan starrer Rang De Basanti, 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.
Yash Raj Films studio subsequently signed Kapoor for a three-film contract. He appeared in films like Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, Aaja Nachle and Bachna Ae Haseeno. After this, Kapoor took a break for two years, and then appeared in national award winner Rahul Dholakia's Lamhaa 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. In 2011, he appeared in the Shahrukh Khan starrer Don 2, where his performance was appreciated.
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. 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.
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, which raises money for social and individual causes. To date, the platform has raised close to one billion rupees.
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

Assistant director

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryFilmResult
2005Zee Cine AwardsBest Newcomer
2007Filmfare AwardsBest Supporting ActorRang De Basanti
2007International Indian Film Academy AwardsBest Supporting ActorRang De Basanti
2017Asiavision AwardsOutstanding performance of the yearVeeram
2019Toronto international South Asian film awardsSpecial jury awardVeeram
2019South Indian International Movie AwardsBest Actor in a Negative Role – TeluguDevadas