Shashank Arora is an Indian actor, writer and musician. He is known for his roles in Titli, Brahman Naman, Moothon and Made in Heaven. He is the only Indian actor to have two films compete at Cannes, Sundance, Berlin, Toronto and Locarno film festival.
Early life and education
Born Shashank 'Sunny' Arora on 21 February 1989, in New Delhi, India, Shashank was interested in music and theatre from a young age. He grew up in suburban Delhi and showed excellence in music and theatre from a young age. After he completed high school he left for higher education in Canada, where he also briefly joined a street theatre group formed by human rights activists. In late 2008, he moved to Mumbai where he studied acting for two years and began his career as an actor. His parents are graphic designers. He was part of plays in school as well. He was inspired by Francis Ford Coppola and Saeed Mirza's cinema as a child. In order to pursue a career in music, Arora went to Concordia University, Montreal, Canada for his graduation in filmmaking, with music as a minor subject. After that, he came to Mumbai but was unable to find work, hence went back to studying. He credits his professor Robert Reece for everything he knows. He later joined Whistling Woods and Film and Television Institute of India as a guest teacher. He also worked under casting director Saher Latif.
Career
Arora first appeared as a supporting character in a movie titled Myoho, as Ranjit. His first major role was the titular role in the critically acclaimed movie Titli, produced by Yash Raj Films. The film competed at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. The film went on to compete at many major festival around the world and Arora was also nominated at Filmfare, Stardust and Zee Cine awards as best newcomer for his role in Titli the following year. In 2016, he played Naman in the movie Brahman Naman. The film went on to compete at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, making Arora the first Indian actor to have films in Cannes and Sundance. Rohan Naahar of Hindustan Times said that "..He makes the really odd choice to play his character like that posh monkey from the Madagascar movies, which just adds to the weirdness.." Next, he played the role of Uday, a bass player in the movie Rock On 2 in the same year. In 2017, he portrayed the role of Bicky, a drug peddler in the movie Zoo. He was seen next as Dhruv in the critically acclaimed movie Lipstick Under My Burkha. He was also seen in The Song of Scorpions as Munna,in the same year. The film went on to open at the Locarno Film Festival in 2017. Later,he was seen portraying the titular character in the web series Gangster Newton. Following that, Arora also essayed the role of Shaad Amritsari in Nandita Das' Manto in 2018. The film was Shashank's second in the Un Certain Regard category at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, making him and Nawazuddin Siddiqui the first Indian actors to have two films in Un Certain Regard at Cannes. In the same year, he appeared in the short films, the Listener, directed by Tarun Judega, Letters directed by Nitin Shingal and Others directed by Sachin Shinde. In 2019, Arora was seen in the Amazon Prime series ′'Made In Heaven′' as Kabir Basrai, a photographer. He was also seen portraying the role of Salman Khan's younger brother, Chote in Bharat. He was also seen in the Malayalam-Hindi bilingual film Moothon which marked his debut in Malayalam cinema. The film went on to premier at the 2019 Toronto Film Festival. In 2019, he appeared in Nandita Das' video India's Got Colour.
