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- Director
- Writer
Priyanshu Painyuli was born on 29 August 1988 in India. He is an actor and director, known for Extraction (2020), Bhavesh Joshi Superhero (2018) and Mirzapur (2018).- Actor
- Music Department
Neeraj is a multiple award winning film and theater actor, best known for his powerful performances in Ship of Theseus and Talvar. He won the Best Actor Awards at the Sakhalin International Film Festival in 2014 and the NBC Newsmakers Achievers' Awards in 2015. Neeraj is the owner of the renowned theater group Pravah, which he founded in 1996. Apart from his acting prowess, he is a trained martial artist and dancer. He most recently played leading roles in Hichki (2018) opposite Rani Mukherjee , The Field (2018) with Brendan Fraser and Once Again (2018) opposite Shefali Shah. He has also worked in Netflix's first Indian Original series Sacred Games and was most recently seen in Navdeep Singh's Laal Kaptaan. He is shooting for a Zee5 show and an Amazon show written by Sudip Sharma.- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Nawazuddin Siddiqui (born 1974) is an Indian film actor who has appeared in some of Bollywood's major films including, Black Friday (2004), New York (2009), Peepli Live (2010), Kahani (2012), Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) and Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 2 (2012).
Early life and education
Nawazuddin Siddiqui is from Budhana a small town of Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh, where his father is a farmer. [2][3][4] Siddiqui grew up amongst nine siblings, seven brothers and two sisters. [5][2]
After graduating in science from a local college, he worked as a chemist in a petrochemical company for a short while. But boredom set in soon, and he moved to Delhi, here in the next one and a half year period, he started watching plays, while working a watchman at an office. He got associated with Sakshi Theatre Group and worked with actors like Manoj Bajpai and Saurabh Shukla.
Eventually he graduated from the The National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi in 1996.Now he is a well known actor. Career
After graduating from NSD, he moved to Mumbai. Nawazuddin made his Bollywood debut in 1999, with a small role in Sarfarosh starring Aamir Khan. After moving to Mumbai he tried to get work in television, but did not achieve much success. After his debut, he appeared in short roles, where he remained unnoticed, despite his strong performances. He did a short film, The Bypass in 2003, where he appeared with actor, Irrfan Khan. Between 2002 and 2005, he was out of work, and lived in an apartment where he shared with four others, and struggled through his acting carrier by conducting occasional acting workshops. His appearance in Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday (2007) paved way for other powerful roles. His first lead role in a feature film was in Prashant Bhargava's PATANG, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, for which Nawazuddin's performance was praised by the world renowned film critic Roger Ebert (awarding the film 4 stars), a role which 'transformed his acting styles'. In 2009, he appeared in a cameo role in hit song "emotional attyachar" in a movie Dev D, in his moniker as Rangila along with his duo Rasila (known together as Patna ke Presley). However it was his role of a journalist in Aamir Khan Productions's Peepli Live (2010). That movie first got him a recognition as an actor. This was followed by a role as police informer Gopi in biopic, Paan Singh Tomar, directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia, also in the same year.
He, however became a household name post Kahaani (2012), where he played the archetypal short tempered cop Khan. Gangs of Wasseypur followed which furthered his fame. He played his first lead role as Sonu Duggal in Ashim Ahluwalia's Miss Lovely that premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, a role Nawazuddin describes as his "most real performance so far." Nawazuddin also played a lead role in his following films, Gangs of Wasseypur - Part II and Aatma. He appeared in Aamir Khan's 2012 release, Talash. Gangs of Wasseypur has been touted as a career defining film for Nawazuddin, where he played the role of Faizal Khan, a second son of Sardar Khan, played by Manoj Bajpai. His gaudy style of dress, magnificent accent and out-of-the-way mannerism in Gangs of Wasseypur left an impression on Bollywood critics. His film PATANG, initially released in the U.S. and Canada, garnered much attention for Nawazuddin with rave reviews from the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Roger Ebert.
Siddiqui is best known for his roles in The Lunchbox (2013), which premiered as part of the International Critics' Week at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and won him multiple awards, Manto (2018), for which his groundbreaking performance won him Best Actor at the 2018 Asian Pacific Screen Awards[8] and Raman Raghav 2.0 for which he won the Fancine Malaga Award in Spain[9] and in Asia Pacific Screen Awards[10] both in the category of Best Actor. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is the only Actor in the world having 8 films officially selected and screened at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.[11] Inspite of being very busy with film shoots, Siddiqui continues to take time out to do farming in his native place in Uttar Pradesh (North India).[12] He is an active motivational speaker, drawing on his struggles and experiences to inspire. He stars in two Emmy nominated series, Sacred Games (2019), a two-season Netflix original series for which he was conferred with the GQ - Men of the Year Award 2018 for the second time[13] and United Kingdom's McMafia directed by James Watkins. Recently Nawazuddin Siddiqui was awarded with the highest honorary, The Lesley Ho Asian Film Talent Award at the prestigious Singapore International Film Festival[14] for his globally appreciated series Sacred Games duology.- Actor
- Producer
Adil Hussain is known for his critically acclaimed performances in award winning theater and film. "Othello- A Play in Black and White" directed by Roysten Abel received international acclaim and was awarded the Fringe First in Edinburgh. His role in this play received rave reviews from "The Scotsman" and "The Independent" in the UK. This play was performed across Western Europe, Africa and India for 10 years. Having acted in more than 80 films, he is known for his work in films such as Ang Lee's Oscar winning 'Life of Pi', Subhashish Bhutiani's 'Hotel Salvation/Mukti Bhavan', Iram Haq's 'What Will People Say', Prakash Jha's 'Pareeksha', Gautam Ghosh's 'The Wayfarer', Danis Tanovic's 'Tigers', Mira Nair's 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist', Pan Nalin's 'Angry Indian Goddesses', Partho Sen-Gupta's 'Sunrise', Italo Spinelli's 'Gangor', Prashant Nair's 'Umrika', Leena Yadav's 'Parched' and Bauddhayan Mukherji's 'The Violin Player' . For his lead role in 'Hotel Salvation' and 'Maj Rati Ketaki', he received a National Award in India in 2017. He received the Norwegian National Award, the 'Amanda', in the Best Actor Category for his work in 'What Will People Say' as well as the Kanon Prisen award for Best Supporting actor in 2018. For 'Mukti Bhavan' which has received over 25 International awards, he has been nominated for numerous Best actor awards and won at the 'Washington DC South Asian Film Festival' and 'Rajasthan International Film Festival' . He received Best Actor Award for his work in 'Lessons in Forgetting' at the New Jersey Independent South Asian Cine Fest and the Critic's Choice award for Best Actor 2021 for his performance in the short film 'Meal'. He received the London Indian International Film Festival's 'Outstanding Achievement Award 2020' for his contribution to global cinema. He also has been acknowledged by his home state in receiving 'Best Assamese Person of the Year Award 2015' by Newslive Tv Channel and 'Global Icon Award 2021' by the Prag Television Channel. His is widely known for his roles in 'English Vinglish', 'Lootera', 'Main aur Charles', 'Dobaara', 'Aiyaary' etc. and has acted in numerous independent as well as commercial films in the Hindi, Bengali , Assamese, Malayali, Tamil film industries as well as in many Indo-European art house films. He also played 'Jasoos Vijay' in the well known BBC World Service Trust television series by the same name. His latest work portraying Lt. Aditya Sahil in 'Star Trek' the iconic international science fiction series has received unprecedented admiration from the Star Trek global fandom. He also was one the main actors in the Netflix series 'Delhi Crime' which was the first ever Indian production to receive an international Emmy award.
Born in Goalpara in the the mid 60's, Adil started his adventure in acting as a young stand up comedian as one of the founding members of the Bhaya Mama Group and performed political satires for 6 years all across Assam. During this period he also acted in several Assamese TV Films and Series, Street and Radio plays and video films. He then received a scholarship to study acting at the National School of Drama from 1990-1993 after which he took a short course at the Drama Studio London as a recipient of the Charles Wallace Trust Scholarship. Following this he performed for one year in the Hengul theater in Assam and then for another 2 years with the International Danstheater in Amsterdam. After years of work on the stage spanning dozens of productions and thousands of performances, Adil undertook his own personal research into the craft of acting when he spent two and a half years on a river island in Karnataka researching the craft of acting with a international group of performing artists. He has taught acting at the National School of Drama, Film and Television Institute Pune, Royal Conservatory of Performing Arts in the Hague, and Drama School Amsterdam.- Actor
- Music Department
- Writer
Piyush Mishra, is an Indian film actor, music director ,lyricist, singer, script and dialogue writer, and a well known theatre director and Hindi playwright. He spent his early life in Gwalior, where he received his education.
Theater and television After his graduation from National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi in 1986, Piyush Mishra started his career as a theatre actor and went on to write and directed several plays as a part of Act-1 Group (1990-1995). In 1996 he joined Asmita Theatre Group, and performed his Popular one man shows An Evening with Piyush Mishra. He wrote the lyrics for Asmita's popular plays.- Actor
- Director
Vijay Raaz was born and raised in Delhi where he attended Kirori Mal College. While at college he was a part of the dramatic society The Players. He also appeared in plays at the National School of Drama. He decided to focus on a film career and moved to Mumbai where he received a role in Ram Gopal Varma's Jungle. Naseeruddin Shah had seen him perform at the NSD and recommended him to Mahesh Mathai for Bhopal Express and to Mira Nair for Monsoon Wedding. After the success of Monsoon Wedding, Raaz received many roles. His first mainstream film cast as the leading actor was Raghu Romeo, a box office success where Raaz depicts the life of a confused lower-class Indian fellow. He came into light for his memorable performance in the movie Run. In which his Kauwa Biriyaani act became highly acclaimed. His performance in the movie got the cult status and was praised by the masses. He also played a major role in the film Delhi belly, where he played a drug mafia. As a villain in the movie he has received much critical applause for his performance.- Jitendra Kumar is an Indian actor, who has completed his bachelor's in civil engineering from IIT Kharagpur. This is the place where he started his acting while participating in dramatics club of the campus.
Later he got invited to work as a actor in "The Viral Fever" by his friend, where he has performed in many web series.
His widely known works are "Kota Factory", "The Bachelors: season 2" by TVF and "Panchayat" of Amazon Prime.
He also had starred in films such as "Gone kesh", "Shubh mangal zayda savdhaan" and "Chaman bahaar".
Of which "Shubh mangal zayda savdhaan" is well known for increasing social awareness in society about homosexuality and problems that homosexuals face in there lives. - Actor
- Writer
He began his acting career in films in 2005 with a credited role in the film 'Haasil' directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia. His major breakthrough came in 2012 film 'Paan Singh Tomar' in which he played the role of a local reporter. In both 'Paan Singh Tomar' and Haasil' he worked with Tigmanshu Dhulia (director) and Irrfan Khan (actor).Kala spent his childhood & studied in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh where his father worked in a veterinary Collage.[ His family belongs to Pauri, Garhwal in Uttarakhand.. He performed theatre in Mathura with a theatre group named Swastik Rang Mandal for as long as 19 years. He lived in Lala Lallumal ki kothi in, Junction Road, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. He graduated from Agra university , in B.Sc bio chemistry, from Kishori Raman Degree College, Mathura.- Deepak Dobriyal (born 1 September 1975) is an Indian film and theatre actor. he was born in Pauri Garhwal district in Uttarakhand. His parents are from Kabra village near Rithakhal and Satpuli village, Pauri Garhwal in Uttarakhand. There, Deepak completed his studies at Govt. Boys Senior Secondary School Begumpur. In Delhi, he lived in Katwariya Saray.
He started his acting career in 1994 with eminent theatre director Arvind Gaur. His major plays with Gaur are Tughlaq, Andha Yug, Final Solutions, Desire Under the Elms, Rakt Kalyan, Court Martial, Dario Fo's Operation Three Star, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Good Person of Szechwan, Neil Simon's The Good Doctor and Ashok Lal's Ek Mamooli Aadmi. After six years with Asmita theatre, he joined Act One with director Pt. N. K. Sharma. He acted in Aao Saathi Sapna Dekhen, Hamaar Baabuji ki chhattri and Aksar Maine Socha Hai.
He has received recognition for his role in Omkara as "Rajju" and as a side-kick to the protagonist "Pappi" in Tanu Weds Manu (2011), a role he reprised in 2015 sequel Tanu Weds Manu: Returns and again received critical acclaims. - Raj Kumar is also known as Rajkummar Rao. He was born in Gurgaon. He finished his schooling in Gurgaon and graduated in Arts from Delhi University. He was simultaneously doing theatre with Kshitij Repertory and SRC in Delhi. He is an Acting graduate from Pune's Film and Television Institute of India. Raj Kumar's debut film was Dibakar Banerjee's Love Sex aur Dhokha in 2010.
- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Music Department
While Vicky Kaushal was born and raised in Mumbai, his family hails from Hoshiarpur, Punjab. His father, Sham Kaushal, is a well-known action director, and his younger brother, Sunny Kaushal made his Bollywood debut in 2016.
While growing up, Kaushal was interested in playing cricket, studying, and watching films. His father wanted him to pursue a stable career away from the silver screen. This led Kaushal to study engineering at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology in Mumbai. He graduated as an Electronics and Telecommunications engineer in 2009.
As an engineering student, Kaushal once went on an industrial visit to an IT company. When he saw the staff sitting in front of desktop computers and working, he could not visualise himself doing the same in the future. After earning his engineering degree, he appeared for a corporate job interview and was offered the role. However, he tore up the offer letter and decided to try acting instead.
Kaushal joined Kishore Namit's acting academy to prepare himself for a film industry career. He spent the next two years dabbling in theatre and going for auditions. He began his acting career in 2011 with the theatrical production Laal Pencil.
Around the same time, Kaushal started assisting Anurag Kashyap on the sets of Gangs of Wasseypur (2012). He got to play minor roles in films like Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana (2012), directed by Sameer Sharma, and Bombay Velvet (2015), directed by Anurag Kashyap. He also appeared in Geek Out (2013), a short film directed by Vasan Bala.
Kaushal debuted on the big screen as a lead with Masaan (2015), an independent drama film directed by Neeraj Ghaywan. The film was selected for screening at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it won two awards- the Promising Future prize in the Un Certain Regard category and the FIPRESCI, which is an International Jury of Film Critics prize.
In 2016, Kaushal won several awards for his debut movie, including the Best Debut Actor at the International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA), Screen Awards, and Zee Cine Awards. He was also nominated for the 10th Asian Film Award for Best Newcomer in 2016.
His second big screen release was Mozez Singh's Zubaan (2015), a musical drama that was filmed before Masaan (2015). Kaushal plays the role of a young man with a speech impairment. He consulted a speech therapist to prepare for this role. Zubaan (2015) was screened at the 20th Busan International Film Festival held in 2015 as the opening film.
In 2016, he appeared as an unbalanced and troubled character in Anurag Kashyap's neo-noir psychological thriller Psycho Raman (2016). To prepare for this role, he went into isolation for five days. The film premiered under the Directors' Fortnight section at the 69th Cannes Film Festival held in 2016, receiving positive reviews. It received a good response from critics at home as well.
He was next seen playing the lead along with Angira Dhar in Love Per Square Foot (2018), directed by Anand Tiwari. This romantic comedy film was released on Netflix and was later screened at the Beijing International Film Festival in 2019.
Kaushal continued to prove his mettle as a versatile actor with movies like Raazi (2018), Sanju (2018), and Husband Material (2018).
In Raazi (2018), Meghna Gulzar's spy action thriller, he plays a Pakistani army officer. The film went on to gross more than Rs. 200 crores. Sanju, directed by Rajkumar Hirani, proved to be another bit hit in his career.
His performance as Kamli in Sanju (2018) earned him the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2019. He also won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) 2018 and Zee Cine Awards 2019. This blockbuster earned over Rs. 586 crores worldwide.
In 2019, Kaushal appeared as a military officer in the action film Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019). To prepare for this movie, filmed in Siberia, Kaushal underwent military training for five months to gain muscle weight. The film grossed more than Rs. 340 crores at the box office. Kaushal received the Best Actor Award at the National Film Awards in 2019, jointly with Ayushmann Khurrana for Andhadhun (2018).
His next film was Bhoot: Part One - The Haunted Ship (2020), directed by Bhanu Pratap Singh.
In Shoojit Sircar's biographical historical drama film Sardar Udham (2021), Kaushal played the role of Indian freedom fighter Udham Singh. The critics appreciated his performance in the film, and he won the Filmfare Critics Award 2022 for Best Actor and IIFA Award 2022 for Best Actor.
He followed this up with a comedy thriller, Govinda Naam Mera (2022). He was also seen in the romantic musical drama Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat (2022) by Anurag Kashyap.
Kaushal is married to actor Katrina Kaif.- Actor
- Music Department
- Director
Naseeruddin Shah was born on July 20 1950, in Barabanki, a small village in Uttar Pradesh. He is a seasoned Bollywood actor and has received several awards for his notable performance in several movies. The actor has also been awarded the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan awards for his enormous contributions to Indian cinema.
Shah was born into a Nawab family. He studied at St. Anselm's Ajmer School in Rajasthan and St. Joseph's College in Nainital. He completed his graduation from the Aligarh Muslim University in 1971. He also attended the National School of Drama, New Delhi.
At the age of 19, Shah married Manara Sikri, who was 36 years old and a divorcee. Post one year of their marriage, their daughter Heeba Shah was born. However, the relationship didn't work out, and they decided to part ways after 12 years of marriage.
Shah met Ratna Pathak Shah, daughter of Dina Pathak and a Bollywood actor in the 1970s. They fell in love and went on to co-star in several films. They tied the knot in 1982. They have two sons together - Imaaduddin Shah and Vivaan Shah. The couple currently resides with their children in Mumbai.
At the age of 18, Shah acted in Sapnon Ka Saudagar (1968), starring Hema Malini and Raj Kapoor. However, his scene was removed before the release of the movie.
He made his Bollywood debut with an uncredited role in Aman in 1967, a film starring Rajendra Kumar Tuli and Saira Banu. From then onwards, he went on to feature in various movies like Nishant (1975), Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983), Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983), Katha (1983) and Junoon (1979).
In 1974, Shah founded a theatre company called Motley Productions, and their inaugural production was Waiting for Godot. He is also part of a theatre troupe and has performed across different cities like New Delhi, Lahore, and Mumbai. He has directed a few plays written by Lavender Kumar, Ismat Chughtai and Saadat Hasan Manto.
He started gaining popularity with his films Hum Paanch (1980) and Masoom (1983), which was shot at St Joseph's College, Nainital, where Shah had studied during his childhood. Another movie called Karma (1986), where he starred beside Dilip Kumar gained much acclaim.
Shah has been a part of several multi-star Bollywood movies like Ghulami (1985), Tridev (1989), and Tridev (1989). In 1994, he completed his 100th movie as an actor with Mohra (1994), where he played the role of a villain.
Shah has also been a part of international projects like the Hollywood adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003). He played the role of Captain Nemo in the film, which gained him a lot of praise.
In 2003, he acted in Vishal Bhardwaj's Maqbool (2003), an Indian adaptation of Macbeth, and in 2004, he appeared in Rajiv Rai's Asambhav (2004) with Arjun Rampal and Priyanka Chopra.
Shah has won several awards, including three National Film Awards, three Filmfare awards, one IIFA award and two Bengal Film Journalists' Association awards. He also received the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival in 1984.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Born Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan, in Jaipur, Rajasthan (NW India) January 7, 1967 to a Pashto-speaking Muslim family. Khan's mother, Begum Khan, was from the Tonk Hakim family and his father, Jagirdar Khan, from the Khajuriya village near the Tonk district, ran a tire business.
The Khan family name comes from Turkish and Mongol languages and mean "king" or great leader. Descendants of Genghis Khan (13th century) in central Asia adopted Islam and became the Moghuls, who conquered India for several centuries until British rule.
Irfan was a skilled cricket player. In his early 20's he was selected for the CK Nayudu Tournament (a stepping stone to First Class cricket). He did not turn up for the tournament owing to lack of funds and as a result he focused on acting.
In 1984 he earned a scholarship to the National School of Acting in New Delhi.
He was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honor for his contribution to the field of arts.
His portrayal of Paan Singh Tomar in the acclaimed biographical sports drama Paan Singh Tomar (2011) won him the National Film Award for Best Actor and a Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor. His performance in the BAFTA Award nominated romance The Lunchbox (2013) earned him universal acclaim by the critics and audiences.
Globally, Khan was in The Warrior (2001), The Namesake (2006), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), the Academy Award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire (2008), New York, I Love You (2009), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), Life of Pi (2012), Jurassic World (2015) and Inferno (2016). As of 2017, his films have grossed $3.643 billion at the worldwide box office. In 2018, Khan was diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumor.
Khan got married to his wife Sutapa Sikdar, in 1995. She is a Hindu of the Brahmin caste. She is a movie producer, dialogue writer and screenwriter. Among her famous movies are Khamoshi: The Musical (Dialogue Writer, 1996), Supari (Dialogue Writer, 2003), Kahaani (Dialogue Writer, 2003), Madaari (Producer, 2016), Qarib Qarib Singlle (Producer, 2017)
They have two kids: Ayaan Khan, Babil Khan
Unlike most Indian film stars, Irrfan has been outspoken on religion. On Arnab Goswami's talk show, he took on Muslim fundamentalists, including India's Grand Imam. Irrfan Khan argued against "transactional religious interaction" and for "personal religious discovery"..."to discover yourself, to find God". Though he admits he is "not an authority" on the Koran and Islamic Holy scriptures he has bravely stood by his comments despite heavy criticism and even threats of violence. He's aware of the dangers that his frank comments pose to him and his family. His wife commented, "We are very proud of him."- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Manoj Bajpayee is a highly acclaimed Indian film actor known for his versatile acting skills and intense performances. Despite facing financial struggles during his childhood, he pursued his passion for acting and worked hard to achieve success in the film industry. Bajpayee is the second child in a family of six siblings, with two brothers and two sisters.Bajpayee decided to become an actor after watching the 1973 film Zanjeer (1973). He began his acting career with small roles in plays and television shows. He made his acting debut in the film Droh Kaal (1994) in 1994. He also played a minor role as a dacoit in Bandit Queen (1994) the same year. Bajpayee gained recognition for his performance in the film Satya (1998) in 1998. Although considered a flop at first, this film won him critical acclaim and established him as a celebrated actor in Indian cinema. Since then, he has acted in numerous successful films and has become known for his ability to portray complex, grey, and challenging characters. He is well-known for his ability to deliver powerful performances in a variety of genres and roles, ranging from gangsters to cops to journalists. Bajpayee has a diverse filmography that includes both mainstream and independent films. His filmography includes many notable films, including Satya (1998), Shool (1999), Pinjar (2003), Special 26 (2013), Aligarh (2015), and Sonchiriya (2019). The actor was also part of the popular web series The Family Man (2019). Some of his other top works include Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), LOC: Kargil (2003), Raajneeti (2010), Satyameva Jayate (2018), and Shootout at Wadala (2013), among others. Bajpayee has also been seen in Despatch and Joram (2023). He has also been a part of Gulmohar (2023), directed by Rahul V. Chittella. The story is based on complex, dysfunctional family life. Throughout his career, Bajpayee has been recognized for his talent and has received numerous awards and nominations. He has won three National Film Awards - Best Supporting Actor for Satya in 1999, Special Jury Award (Feature Film) for Pinjar in 2004, and Best Actor for Bhonsle (2018) in 2021.He has also won four Filmfare Awards, two under the category of Best Actor (Critics) for the films Satya, Shool, and Aligarh in 1999, 2000, and 2017 respectively, and one under the category of Best Actor in a Short Film?? for Taandav (2016?) in 2017.In 2019, Bajpayee was awarded the Padma Shri, which is India's fourth-highest civilian honour. In addition to his work in the film industry, Bajpayee is also known for his philanthropic efforts. He is actively involved in various social and charitable causes, including education and healthcare. He is also a strong advocate for environmental protection. He has also voiced his concerns about the state of migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bajpayee married Shabana Raza in 2006. They met in 1998 at a Bollywood party when the latter debuted with the film Kareeb (1998) opposite Bobby Deol. They have a daughter, Ava Nayla.- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Known for his trademark gelled spiked up crew cut with sunglasses, Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) is an Indian Bollywood movie star, movie producer, magazine model, showman, public speaker, author, philanthropist and television host/personality working predominantly in Hindi cinema.
Khan began his on-camera acting debut in 1987 at the age of 21 by guest starring in various Indian serial drama soap opera TV shows as well as appearing in numerous television commercials and brand advertisements for products. He studied theatre arts and drama during his second year of college after participating in numerous school plays. He landed a few acting gigs in Delhi, before acting on Indian TV and became popular. Khan came down to Mumbai to shoot a TV series with self doubt and under confidence. So he came for a year to give it a shot. He began auditioning for starring roles in Hindi movies in 1990 after the death of his mother (his father died a decade earlier in 1980). Khan's parents died early, which made him heartbroken in Delhi. Khan decided to pursue a full-time acting career and relocating to Mumbai to start afresh, hoping to enjoy acting and overcome the dejecting death of his parents, as there was nothing for him to go back to. He began auditioning for starring roles in Hindi movies in 1990 after the death of his mother (his father died a decade earlier in 1980).
After recuperating from a career-ending sports injury, he landed his breakout breakthrough feature film starring role in the Silver screen in June 1992, and rose to prominence in the mid-to-late 1990s. Khan shot to stardom in his first feature film "Deewana" (1992) which won him the first of 13 Filmfare awards -- the Bollywood equivalent of an Oscar. He continued starring in blockbuster movies throughout the 2000s with a mixed bag of career fluctuations, establishing himself as a very bankable, versatile movie star in the early-to-mid 2010s. Following a 4-year sabbatical hiatus in the wake of the corona-virus pandemic, Khan made a resurgence comeback in 2023, and continues to act and star in A-Lister blockbuster movies.
Referred to in the media as the "Baadshah of Bollywood" and "King Khan", he has appeared in over 100 films, and earned numerous accolades, including 14 Filmfare Awards.
He has been awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India, as well as the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and Legion of Honour by the Government of France. Khan has a significant following in Asia and the Indian diaspora worldwide. In terms of audience size and income, several media outlets have described him as one of the most successful film stars in the world. Many of his films depict and portray Indian national identity, Indian patriotism, and connections with diaspora communities, or gender, racial, social and religious differences and grievances.
Shah Rukh Khan has been TAG Heuer's brand ambassador in India since September 2003 & is close friends with Amir. He is Bollywood's most bankable movie stars with brand endorsements & resides in the affluent suburbs of Bandra, Mumbai, India with his wife and children.- Actor
- Music Department
- Producer
Ranveer Singh Bhavnani was born in July 06, 1985 to Mr. Jagjit Singh Bhavnani & Mrs. Anju Bhavnani in Mumbai, Maharashtra. He is an Indian actor and model working in the Bollywood industry. Singh had always wanted to be an actor since his childhood. However, during his college days he felt that the idea of acting was far-fetched and focused on creative writing. While pursuing his Bachelor of Arts degree from Indiana University (Bloomington), Singh again became interested in acting and after coming back to India, he started auditioning for lead roles in the Hindi film industry. In 2010, Singh auditioned for the lead role in the Yash Raj Films venture called Band Baaja Baaraat (2010), and got selected. The romantic comedy was set in the world of wedding planning and required Singh to portray a typical Delhi guy called Bittoo Sharma. The director of the film, Maneesh Sharma, sent him to the Delhi University campus during the recess of the film, and from there, Singh drew his inspiration for the character. After its release, Band Baaja Baaraat (2010) became a critical and commercial success, with Singh's portrayal of Bittoo being lauded by critics. He went on to win the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut award at the 56th Filmfare Awards.- Kay Kay Menon is a well-known Indian actor who has acted in numerous movies and web series. He was born in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India, but raised in Ambarnath, Maharashtra, India.
Menon pursued his early education at St Joseph High School in Pune. After this, he went on to earn a degree in Physics from Mumbai University.
He then pursued an MBA from the University of Pune. After completing his education, he joined the advertising industry.
Menon began his acting career with a theatre break opposite Naseeruddin Shah in Mahatma vs Gandhi. After that, he started working in the TV industry with the television serial Darr (1995).
His debut movie was Naseem (1995) in 1995, but he got recognition for his role in the critically acclaimed movie Bhopal Express (1999) in 1999.
He has acted in numerous movies, including Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (2003), Black Friday (2004), Sarkar (2005), Corporate (2006), Life in a Metro (2007), ABCD (Any Body Can Dance) (2013), Ankur Arora Murder Case (2013), Haider (2014) and The Ghazi Attack (2017).
He is also known for his role in the Hotstar web series Special OPS (2020) and Special Ops 1.5: The Himmat Story (2021), where he played the role of RAW officer Himmat Singh.
He has played the role of Mansoor Dalal in the web series, Farzi (2023).
Some of his best performances are in the movies Black Friday (2004), where he played the role of DCP Rakesh Maria, Sarkar (2005), where he played the role of Vishnu Nagre, Gulaal (2009) where Menon played the role of Dukey Bana, and Haider (2014), where he played the role of Khurram Meer.
Kay Kay Menon has received several awards and nominations for his performances in movies and web series. He was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role for his role in Sarkar (2005).
He won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor and the IIFA Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role for his role in Haider (2014). - Actor
- Writer
- Director
Rahul Bose, born in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, is a multi-talented Indian actor, director, screenwriter, social activist, and rugby player. Known for his versatility and intense performances, Rahul Bose has made significant contributions to Indian cinema and is recognized for his commitment to both artistic and social causes.
Rahul Bose began his acting career in the late 1990s with the critically acclaimed film "English, August" (1994), where he played the lead role of Agastya Sen. This marked the beginning of a career characterized by unconventional choices and a dedication to meaningful storytelling.
Throughout his career, Rahul Bose has been associated with a range of films that address diverse themes. Notable performances include his roles in "Mr. and Mrs. Iyer" (2002), "Chameli" (2003), and "15 Park Avenue" (2005), where he showcased his ability to portray complex and layered characters.
Apart from acting, Rahul Bose has ventured into directing and screenwriting. His directorial debut, "Everybody Says I'm Fine!" (2001), explored the lives of characters in a Mumbai hair salon and received positive reviews for its unique narrative.
In addition to his creative pursuits, Rahul Bose is actively involved in social activism. He is known for his work in areas such as education, healthcare, and disaster relief. He founded the NGO "The Foundation" in 2007, focusing on the development of rural India.
Rahul Bose's commitment to sports is also noteworthy. He has represented India in rugby and has been a vocal advocate for the promotion of sports at the grassroots level.
Rahul Bose continues to be a prominent figure in Indian cinema, balancing his acting career with social and sporting endeavors. His work reflects a dedication to diverse and meaningful storytelling, and he remains an influential personality in the realms of art and activism.- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Akshaye Khanna was born in Mumbai in 1975. He is the middle son of Bollywood actor and politician Vinod Khanna, and the younger brother of actor Rahul Khanna.
After studying in Kishore Namit Kapoor Acting Institute in Mumbai, Khanna made his acting debut in Bollywood in 1997 with the movie Himalay Putra, which went without much success at box office. His performance in his next release, J. P. Dutta-directed Border (1997), earned him the Filmfare Best Debut Award and a nomination for Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1998. After that a string of unsuccessful films followed such as Mohabbat (1997), Kudrat (1998), Laawaris (1999), Love You Hamesha (1999) and Dahek: A Burning Passion (1999). In 1999, he starred in Rishi Kapoor's Aa Ab Laut Chalen; though the film did average business, he was praised for his acting in this film. He next starred in the 1999 release of Subhash Ghai's Taal opposite Aishwarya Rai. The film became a critical and commercial success. In 2001, Khanna appeared in Farhan Akhtar's cult classic Dil Chahta Hai which turned out to be a turning point in his career; the film was a commercial and critical success and Khanna's performance was particularly applauded, later validated by first Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2002. Also, the film launched both Akshaye Khanna and Saif Ali Khan's careers. In 2002, Khanna appeared in a Abbas-Mustan thriller Humraaz; his role as a convincing con-artist in this film earned him much critical acclaim, and a nomination for a Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role. Khanna then plunged into the comedy genre with Priyadarshan's Hungama (2002) and Hulchul (2004) that became box office hits. After acting in a string of unsuccessful and lukewarm box-office films like Shaadi Se Pehle (2006), Aap Ki Khatir (2006), Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute to Love (2007), Mere Baap Pehle Aap (2008), Gandhi, My Father (2007), and Naqaab (2007), Khanna appeared in the 2008 release Race. The Abbas-Mustan's thriller was the fourth highest-grossing Bollywood film in 2008 and Khanna's performance in a negative role brought him couple of awards in the Best Villain category. However, Khanna's portrayal of Harilal Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi's eldest son, in the critically acclaimed 2007 film Gandhi, My Father that is unanimously acknowledged his best performance yet as an actor. In 2010, he starred in Anees Bazmee's No Problem, co-starring with Sanjay Dutt, Anil Kapoor and Kangna Ranaut.[12] His later releases did not fare well at the box office but his performances in Aakrosh (2010) and Tees Maar Khan (2010) were well-received by critics and audiences alike.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Vivek Oberoi was born on the 3rd of September,1976 and attended Mayo college in Ajmer. At an actors' workshop in London he was spotted by none other than the director of NYU who (unsurprisingly) whisked Vivek off to New York, where he completed his Masters Degree in film acting. Back home in India Vivek worked as scriptwriter and bought his first car with the money he made from that.
But the charmer's big break came when noted filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma offered Vivek a role in his gangster flick, Company (2002). Quite an unusual entrance for a debutant in Bollywood, because the norm for young actors is to play good lover boys till their place in Filmdom is secure. Not Vivek. Apparently, Ram Gopal Varma was having second thoughts about casting Vivek in Company because he thought Vivek looked too cute for a gangster - and told him so. Vivek, not to be outdone, went to the slums of Mumbai and did his homework and a couple of weeks later barged into Varma's office dressed as Chandu the gangster, swung his feet up on the table, and landed the contract pronto.
From there the road went uphill. Vivek's immaculate performance in Company - in which he starred opposite Bollywood Big Bad Boy Ajay Devgn, Miss Bolly Manisha Koirala and the granddaddy of Malayalam Cinema, Mohanlal - was more than enough to get the media singing Oberoi's praises. Next in line was the psycho-thriller Road (2002) (opposite Company co-star and co-newcomer Antara Mali), Dum (2003) (which sank without a trace - opposite Dia Mirza) and the next big catch, Saathiya (2002), opposite Rani Mukerji.
He recently got engaged to, and then broke up with longtime girlfriend Gurpreet, and is currently linked with Rani Mukherjee and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Recently he got himself into the headlines for a public outburst (i.e. press conference) against Salman Khan.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Ranganathan Madhavan was born on June 01, 1970, to businessman R. Iyengar and his wife R. Saroja in a Tamil family. He is an Indian actor, writer, film director and producer.
At the age of 18, his college entrusted him with the responsibility of representing India as a Cultural Ambassador to Canada.
A year later, he and three others from his college were sent to Britain as army cadets and received training in the royal army, navy, and Air Force.
While conducting courses on public speaking, he met Saritha, an Air Hostess and both got married 7 years later. Their first child, a son, Vedaant, was born in 2005.
A vegetarian and animal lover, he is a brand ambassador for PETA. He is fluent in English, Hindi, and Tamil.
Before making his appearance on the tinsel screen, he was popular on the idiot box on Sony's Deal Ya No Deal (2005). Having done close to 1800 episodes of various soaps on varied National Networks, he subsequently also appeared as the main character in a mobile game.
He made his debut with Inferno (1997) in 1998, and since then acted in nearly 48 movies in English, Hindi, Tamil, and Kannada. He is popularly known as the 'chocolate hero', and his most popular film is 3 Idiots (2009) where he starred opposite Aamir Khan and Sharman Joshi.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Abhay is an actor who has never shied away from speaking his mind; a producer who doesn't believe in the 'formula', a film curator with a keen eye for detail and good stories, a painter who's not scared to experiment with colours and a philanthropist who wishes to leverage his position to bring a positive change in society. Well, that's in short Abhay Deol, if only the versatile actor could fit in boxes.
Despite coming from the most-filmy family of Bollywood- the Deols, Abhay is a man of few words who lets his work and films do the talking bit. You may call him non-conformist but Abhay's panache of portraying complex characters is matched by very few in the cinema world as evident from his filmography that includes films like Dev D, Raanjhana, Manorama six feet under, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Shanghai and Oye Lucky Lucky Oye.
Whether it was acquainting Sunny Deol to Imtiaz Ali for his debut Socha Na Tha, raising funds for Manorama Six Feet Under or giving Anurag Kashyap the idea to give Devdas a contemporary twist in Dev.D, Abhay always went beyond the traditional responsibilities of an actor even in the early days of his career.
Despite his success with films that have been termed "art-house" and "off beat", Abhay - right from his first shot has continually balanced and found success both with artistic/indie cinema as well as hugely successful Bollywood blockbusters.
He has consistently taken chances with debutante directors from the start of his career. Be it Imtiaz Ali, Reema Kakdi or Navdeep Singh, just to name a few. He's also carried the freedom, and his penchant for going against the grain, into his work as a producer - backing newcomers and new storylines. With a huge fan-following across the globe, Abhay has always stood for the cause of parallel cinema, which is one of the reasons he became a film curator. He also ventured into the digital medium with Chopsticks and Line of Descent, apart from stepping into Tamil cinema with Hero and Idhu Vedhalam Sollum Kadhai. With a strong social media presence, Abhay is known to take a stand divergent to the rest of tinsel town's herd opinions, which is what makes him 'thinking women sex symbol.'- Actor
- Producer
Kartik Tiwari Aaryan was born in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh to Dr. Manish & Mala Tiwari. He is an Indian actor who works in Bollywood films. He started to struggle for his acting career in 2009 where he lied to his parents that he wanted to study engineering in Mumbai but he instead would skip his college and went for film auditions and would get rejected every time. He finally got his first film, Pyaar Ka Punchnama in 2011 where he played Rajjo (Rajat), one of the leads opposite Nushrratt Bharuccha & Sonnalli Seygall. After the release of his first film, his mother insisted him to complete his engineering course. After completing his college, he made his comeback with the 2013-box office failure Akash-Vani where he was paired with Bharuccha again and this film was also directed by their PKP director Luv Ranjan. Aaryan changed his name on the day of Kaanchi: The Unbreakable (2014)'s release. His first biggest success came with the 2018-buddy drama Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety where he starred opposite Bharuccha again & Sunny Singh Nijjar (his co-star from Akash-Vani & Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2). After the success of this film, he bought a bungalow in Mumbai and invited his parents also to live with him there. He also starred in movies like Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 (2015), Guest inn London (2017), Luka Chuppi (2019), Pati Patni Aur Woh (2019), Love Aaj Kal (2020) etc.- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
Ayushmann Khurrana was born on 14 September 1984 in Chandigarh, India. Ayushmann started off his career as a popular radio jockey, and eventually became a VJ on MTV India and one of the most popular hosts in India. He shot to stardom with the runaway hit, 'Vicky Donor' in 2012. His effortless act in his debut won him rave reviews and the film went on to become one of the biggest hits of the year. The quirky film coupled with some fabulous songs, especially 'Paani da' (sung & co-composed by Khurrana) marked his arrival in the Hindi film industry. He also won a slew of highly prestigious awards in 2012.
A native of Punjab, Ayushmann studied at St. John's High School and DAV College in Chandigarh. He majored in English literature and has a master's degree in Mass Communication from School of Communication Studies, Punjab University, in Chandigarh. He did serious theatre for five years. He was also the founder member of DAV College's "Aaghaaz" and "Manchtantra", which are active theatre groups in Chandigarh. He has conceptualized and acted in street plays, and won prizes in national college festivals like Mood Indigo (IIT Bombay), Oasis (Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani) and St. Bedes Simla. He also won a Best Actor award for playing Ashwatthama in Dharamvir Bharati's Andha Yug.
From theatre to television to the big screen, Ayushmann's progression as an artist has been one of the most organic ones. He followed up his Vicky Donor act with some films where his performances were highly appreciated by the audience and critics alike. Ayushmann simultaneously built his oeuvre as a singer and live performer as well. His three singles - 'O Heeriye,' 'Mitti Di Khushboo,' and the latest, 'Yahin Hoon Main' - have won millions of hearts.- Kumud Mishra is an Indian actor, predominantly working in Hindi cinema. His father was a soldier in the Indian Army, which led Mishra to attend the Rashtriya Military School in Belgaum, Karnataka. After finishing school, he moved to Bhopal for his Bachelor of Arts degree.
Mishra always had a passion for the performing arts. School plays, directed by his teachers Pathare and Janardhan, were a source of inspiration for his acting career.
When Mishra moved to Bhopal, he became a Bharat Bhavan Cultural Centre member. There, he performed on stage with Sachin Tiwari, John Martin, Alakh Nandan, Bansi Kaul, and Satyabrata Rout, among others.
Following his tenure in Bhopal, Mishra finished his education at the National School of Drama in Delhi, earning his diploma in acting.
In 1995, Mishra made his television debut on Swabhimaan (1995), which was broadcasted on the DD National channel. His first movie, Sardari Begum (1996), marked the beginning of his career in cinema.
He played the role of Captain Kabir in the war action movie 1971 (2007), which won the National Film Awards for Best Feature Film in Hindi. Soon after, his career took off when he played a junior version of Rishi Kapoor's role in the sports drama Patiala House (2011).
The same year, he starred alongside Ranbir Kapoor in the award-winning romantic-musical Rockstar (2011).
Mishra has since acted in supporting roles for several award-winning films, including Filmistaan (2012), Raanjhanaa (2013), Rustom (2016), Airlift (2016), Sultan (2016), Jolly LLB 2 (2017), and Sooryavanshi (2021).
For his portrayal of Mehmood in Filmistaan (2012), Mishra won the IBNLive Movie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Negative Role.
In 2019, Mishra starred in the critically-acclaimed crime film Article 15 (2019) opposite Ayushmann Khurrana. For his role as Kisan Jatav, Mishra received two nominations for Best Supporting Actor.
The next year, Mishra starred in Thappad (2020) alongside Ratna Pathak Shah, where they played the lead character's parents. Mishra was nominated three times for the Best Supporting Actor category for his role in the movie.
Mishra played the titular role in the drama film Ram Singh Charlie (2020), for which he was nominated at the FOI Online Awards in 2021 for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Mishra joined the cast of Netflix's spy action movie Mission Majnu (2023). However, that was not his first foray into acting on OTT platforms, as he previously appeared in the Amazon Prime Video series Tandav (2021).
Despite the late start to Mishra's Bollywood career, he has been a prominent presence on stage for almost 20 years at Prithvi Theatre.
In 2013, he co-founded the theatrical group 'D for Drama' with two other members. His group produced the play Dhumrapaan, which was chosen for the 2017 META Awards. - Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub, born in Delhi, India, is a talented Indian actor who has made a mark in Bollywood with his compelling performances. Known for his versatility and ability to portray a wide range of characters, Zeeshan Ayyub has become a prominent figure in the Indian film industry.
Zeeshan Ayyub started his acting career in theater, gaining experience and honing his craft before making his foray into the world of cinema. He made his Bollywood debut with the film "No One Killed Jessica" (2011), where he played a supporting role. However, it was his collaboration with director Habib Faisal in "Band Baaja Baaraat" (2010) that brought him recognition for his acting skills.
One of Zeeshan Ayyub's standout performances came in the film "Tanu Weds Manu" (2011), where he played the character of Raja Awasthi, earning praise for his comic timing and memorable presence on screen. He continued to impress audiences and critics alike with his roles in films such as "Raanjhanaa" (2013), "Raanjhanaa" (2015), and "Zero" (2018).
However, it was his portrayal of the character Shiva in the critically acclaimed film "Raees" (2017), starring alongside Shah Rukh Khan, that further elevated Zeeshan's status in the industry. His ability to bring depth and authenticity to his characters, whether in supporting or lead roles, has solidified his position as a sought-after actor.
Zeeshan Ayyub has also been associated with socially relevant and thought-provoking films, such as "Article 15" (2019), where he delivered a powerful performance highlighting social issues. He has continued to collaborate with prominent filmmakers and actors, showcasing his commitment to quality storytelling.
Outside of his film career, Zeeshan Ayyub has been active in theater and has expressed his views on various social and political issues. - Pankaj Tripathi is a well-known Indian actor who has made a significant contribution to Indian cinema. Born to Pandit Benares Tiwari, a priest and Hemanti Devi, Tripathi had a humble upbringing in a small town in Bihar, India.
Tripathi, as a child, participated in a few amateur plays where he played the role of a girl. However, he was not actively involved in the world of acting at that time. While studying in class 12, Tripathi's interest in theatre was sparked when he watched a play named Andha Kuan. Actor Pranita Jaiswal's emotional performance moved him to tears, which further intensified his passion for theatre. Later on, Tripathi relocated to Patna to pursue Higher education in Hotel management training and this is where his life took a new direction.
He would often cycle his way to see all the stage shows that were held in Patna from 1994 - 1995. By 1996, Tripathi stopped being in the audience and took to becoming a performer. Tripathi also worked the night shift in a hotel kitchen during this time.
His interest in acting led him to complete his graduation in Hindi literature and enrol at the National School of Drama (NSD) in Delhi, which he completed in 2004. He then moved to Mumbai.
Tripathi's initial years in the films saw him playing minor roles in several films, including Run (2004), Apaharan (2005), Omkara (2006), Shaurya (2008), Raavan (2010), Children's Party (2011), and Agneepath (2012), among others. In many of these movies, he played the role of an antagonist.
After working for about eight years, Tripathi got his first major role onscreen in the Gangs of Wasseypur (2012). The movie was a two-part gangster movie directed by Anurag Kashyap based on the coal mafia. The movie received rave reviews from critics and was included in the list of 100 best films of the 21st century by The Guardian.
Following this, Tripathi worked in several other movies, such as Dabangg 2 (2012), ABCD (Any Body Can Dance) (2013), Fukrey (2013), Singham Returns (2014), Dilwale (2015), Nil Battey Sannata (2015), Bareilly Ki Barfi (Seeking True Love (2017)), Fukrey Returns (2017), and Super 30 (2019).
Tripathi was also seen in Neeraj Ghaywan's independent drama film Masaan (2015). He played a small but impactful role of a small-town government official who has an amicable nature.
He went on to play the lead role in Shanker Raman's neo-noir thriller Gurgaon (2017). In the same year, he appeared in a prominent role in Newton (2017), a dark comedy-drama directed by Amit Masurkar. The film premiered at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival under the Forum section.
Newton won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi 2017. Tripathi earned a special mention for his performance in the movie at the National Film Awards held in 2018. Newton was selected as the official Indian entry for the 90th Academy Awards held in 2017 under the Best Foreign Language Film.
Tripathi appeared in Pa. Ranjith action drama Kaala (2018) starring Rajinikanth and Nana Patekar the following year. It marked his debut in Tamil cinema. His next film was Stree (2018), a horror-comedy directed by Amar Kaushik. It was a huge commercial success and earned about Rs. 180 crores worldwide. For his performance in this movie, Tripathi won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the Star Screen Awards 2018.
Tripathi appeared in a supporting role in Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl (2020). He played the role of a progressive father who was supportive of his daughter's dreams. His character believes in gender equality and encourages his daughter to break the bonds of patriarchy and reach for her dreams.
He also worked in Ludo (2020), directed by Anurag Basu.
Tripathi was also seen in prominent roles in Kaagaz (2021), Mimi (2021), '83 (2021), and Sherdil (2022). He has also acted in various TV series, such as Time Bomb (2005), Zindgi Ka Har Rang ... Gulaal (2010), Powder (2010), and Sarojini - Ek Nayi Pehal (2015).
Tripathi has been a part of several web series as well, including Sacred Games (2018), Mirzapur (2018), Criminal Justice (2019), Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors (2020), Criminal Justice: Adhura Sach (2022), and Gulkanda Tales.
His performance in Mirzapur (2018) won him Best Actor - Drama at the iReel Awards 2019 and Best Actor - Web Series at the Indian Television Academy Awards 2021. - Actor
- Producer
- Executive
Ali Fazal is a renowned Indian model and actor born in New Delhi and brought up in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Since his parents were separated, he spent most of his childhood with his maternal grandparents.
Fazal studied for a few years at International Indian School, Dammam, and then at La Martiniere College in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. He then completed his studies at The Doon School in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, where he explored acting. He was an active basketball player during this time. After he fractured his leg, he started participating in school plays. He participated in a school play based on William Shakespeare's The Tempest, where he got the role of Trinculo, the jester. After Doon, Fazal moved to Mumbai and graduated in Economics from St. Xavier's College.
Fazal made his screen debut in the English language film The Other End of the Line (2007) in 2007. And he debuted in the Hindi film industry with a small role as Joy Lobo in 3 Idiots (2009). He appeared next in Always Kabhi Kabhi (2011), Roshan Abbas-directed romantic film produced by Shah Rukh Khan production house, Red Chillies Entertainment.
In Fukrey (2013), a contemporary comedy film, Fazal's appeared as Zafar, a struggling musician. In 2014, Fazal, as Tasawur, appeared opposite Vidya Balan in the comedy-drama Bobby Jasoos (2014). He got the lead role in the movie Khamoshiyan (2015). He also appeared in his first American film, Furious 7 (2015). He then played the lead role opposite Diana Penty in Happy Bhaag Jayegi (2016).
In 2017, Fazal appeared in the sequel Fukrey Returns (2017). He did another remarkable film in 2017, Victoria & Abdul (2017), in which he played the role of Abdul Karim, an Indian servant in the British-American film. This movie premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2017.
In 2018, he appeared in the sequel Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi (2018) and played Guddu Pandit in the web series Mirzapur (2018). Fazal became famous as Guddu Pandit because of his much-appreciated performance in the crime thriller released on Amazon Prime Video.
In 2020 he appeared in Mirzapur season 2, where he continued as Guddu Pandit. In 2021 he turned producer and established Pushing Buttons Studios, his film production company, along with Richa Chadha.
He was also cast as Andrew Katchadourian in the film Death on the Nile (2022), inspired by Agatha Christie's novel. The same year, he married renowned actress Richa Chadha in Lucknow.
Fazal made it to The Times of India's "Most Desirable Man" listing in 2014. He also walked the ramp at Lakme Fashion Week in 2015. He won an award in 2017 at the Hamptons International Film Festival in the Variety 10 Actors to Watch category. In 2018, he won the Most Beautiful Couple of the Year at Vogue Beauty Awards with his wife, Richa Chadha.- Indian actor Divyendu Sharma is known for his roles in web series and Bollywood movies. Sharma received his higher education from Delhi University's Kirori Mal College, where he graduated with a degree in Political Science. He then went on to study acting at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune.
After graduating from FTII, he arrived in Mumbai and struggled for more than three years before getting film offers. During that period, he arranged private events to fund his meals. He also joined the theatre club 'Players' to groom himself for movies.
Sharma's first official acting performances involved ads for brands like Fidelity Mutual Funds and Birla Sun Life. Then, in 2007, he appeared in the movie Aaja Nachle (2007) in a supporting role. The film was directed by Anil Mehta, and the star cast included Madhuri Dixit, Darshan Jariwala, Divya Dutta, and Dalai.
Sharma was also featured in the film Pyaar Ka Punchnama (2011), in which he portrayed a character called Liquid. The film was directed by Luv Ranjan, and the cast included Kartik Aaryan, Ashish Chhipa, Raayo S. Bakhirta, and Nushrratt Bharuccha.
Sharma's performance garnered favourable reviews, and the film was a success. In fact, he received the Screen Award for Male Newcomer (Most Promising) in 2011 for his portrayal.
Sharma has acted in numerous other movies, including Chashme Baddoor (2013), Ekkees Toppon Ki Salaami (2014), Toilet: A Love Story (2017), 2016 the End (2017), The Icebreaker (2018), Kanpuriye (2019), Odd Couple (2019), Shukranu (2020), Thai Massage (2022) and Mere Desh Ki Dharti (2022).
Besides movies, Sharma has been featured in web series and shorts, including Bicchoo Ka Khel (2020), Salt City (India) (2022), and Fatafat (2019), for which he received the Best Actor award by IWM Digital in 2019.
His performance as Munna Tripathi in Mirzapur (2018) was laudable. He also won the Best Supporting Actor award at the iReel Awards 2019 for this role. - Producer
- Writer
- Art Director
An accomplished and award-winning producer-director-writer-actor-singer, Farhan Akhtar is the ultimate Bollywood multi-hyphenate. Born in 1974 to prolific Indian film writer and poet, Javed Akhtar and writer-director, Honey Irani , Farhan was raised in an environment where creativity and originality of thought were encouraged. This has made him a maverick whose films reflect refreshingly new content that easily strikes a chord with filmgoers.
In 1999, Farhan collaborated with Ritesh Sidhwani, a friend who shared his passion for good cinema, to form Excel Entertainment, a production banner that has become synonymous with excellence in film-making.
Debuting at the age of 26, as a writer, director, and producer with Dil Chahta Hai (2001) a coming-of-age film that has gained cult status, Farhan came to be lauded for his honest, path-breaking writing and his ability to extract mature performances from his cast. The film won Farhan his first National Award for 'Best Hindi Feature Film' along with Filmfare awards for 'Best Feature Film - Critics Choice' and 'Best Screenplay'.
Almost two decades later, this film continues to influence a generation of filmmakers.
Seven years after his dream debut as a writer-director, Farhan debuted as an actor-singer in Rock On!! (2008) Yet another runaway success, the film secured him a second National Award for 'Best Hindi Feature Film' and a Filmfare award for 'Best Debut Performance'.
The dream run continued with Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) which released in 2011 to much popular and critical acclaim, winning him three Filmfare awards for 'Best Film', 'Best Actor in a supporting role' and 'Best Dialogue'.
His next, a biopic on Indian athlete Milkha Singh, popularly known as 'the Flying Sikh', was entitled Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013).
He essayed the role with such integrity that it set the standard for other actors considering to play titular protagonists in biopics. Deservingly, Farhan swept all awards that year for 'Best Actor' as did the film for 'Best Film'. It also claimed the National award for 'Best Popular Film providing Wholesome Entertainment.'
His most recent release The Sky Is Pink (2019) premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and received a 15-minute standing ovation from the audience at the Roy Thomson Hall.
In addition to his contribution to Indian cinema, Farhan has initiated and supported a plethora of social causes. In 2012, he founded MARD (Men against Rape & Discrimination), an initiative that raises awareness about gender-related issues amongst the youth of India. Recognizing his sustained efforts, Farhan was made the first male UNwomen goodwill ambassador (South Asia) in 2014.
Additionally, Farhan feeds his passion for music by writing, composing and performing live with his band FarhanLive.
His English language debut album 'Echoes' released in March 2019 to critical acclaim.
He has 2 daughters and lives in Mumbai, India.- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Anupam Kher is a renowned Indian actor who has worked extensively in the Indian film industry, as well as in international films and television shows. He is known for his versatile acting skills and has portrayed a wide range of characters throughout his career.
Kher studied at Simla in D.A.V. School and graduated with a degree in Economics from Simla's Himachal Pradesh University. He studied at the Government College, Sanjauli. He left the university mid-way and instead studied the Indian theatre in Chandigarh at Panjab University.
Kher was a part of several plays at Himachal Pradesh University. He took drama classes in Lucknow at Raj Bisaria's Bharatendu Natya Akadem for a small role in Sheeshay Ka Ghar (1984), his debut film.
In 1984, he landed his first role in Bollywood with the film Saaransh (1984). He played the role of a 65-year-old teacher in this film. He went on to work in projects like Tezaab (1988) and Vijay (1988), for which he was awarded the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Kher received public recognition for his performances in movies like Ram Lakhan (1989) and his first Filmfare Award under the Best Performer in a Comic Role category. He also won a Filmfare Critics Award and a National Film Award - Special Mention for his role in Daddy (1989).
In 1990, Kher starred in Dil (1990) and received another Filmfare Best Supporting Actor nomination. He was critically acclaimed for his performance in Lamhe (1991). He won a Filmfare Award as the Best Comedian for his role in the movie.
Kher later appeared in Beta (1992) alongside Madhuri Dixit and Anil Kapoor. In the same year, his role in Khel (1992) earned him another Filmfare Award as the Best Comedian.
Kher went on to star in massive hits like Darr (1993), which got him a Filmfare award as the Best Comedian. In 1994, he appeared in another blockbuster, Laadla (1994).
One of Kher's most successful movies Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994), earned him another nomination as the Best Supporting Actor at Filmfare and was the second movie for which he won the National Film Award, this time under the category Best Popular Film.
Kher's performance in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) got him his fifth Filmfare Best Comedian Award and was highly applauded and loved by the audience.
After a gap of almost three years, he made his comeback in yet another blockbuster Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), for which he received the Best Comedian nomination at Filmfare.
Kher also tried his skills in directing with Om Jai Jagadish (2002) and was also the producer. In 2007, Kher collaborated with Satish Kaushik and started Karol Bagh Productions, a film production company. They produced their first movie Teree Sang: A Kidult Love Story (2009), in 2009.
He hosted TV shows like Say Na Something to Anupam Uncle (2000) and The Anupam Kher Show (2014).
Kher has also appeared in international films like Bend It Like Beckham (2002) and Bride & Prejudice (2004).
Kher received the Best Actor Award at the Karachi International Film Festival for his performance in I Did Not Kill Gandhi (2005), which was also produced by him.
His other foreign films were The Mistress of Spices (2005), Lust, Lust, Caution (2007), the TV show ER (1994), Oscar-winning Silver Linings Playbook (2012), and Hotel Mumbai (2018).
He also received a nomination for BAFTA for his supporting role in the British sitcom The Boy with the Topknot (2017).
In 2019, Kher took the role of Manmohan Singh, India's former Indian Prime minister in The Accidental Prime Minister (2019). In 2022, he appeared in the controversial film The Kashmir Files (2022), which was a blockbuster.
Kher was awarded the best actor for his role in a short film titled Happy Birthday (2021) at the New York City International Film Festival. He is a recipient of two National Film Awards, eight Filmfare Awards, two International Indian Film Academy Awards, two Screen Awards India, and five other state/viewer awards.
His handprint was preserved for posterity at Bandra Bandstand in Mumbai as he was honoured by 'Walk of the Stars'. The US state of Texas presented him with the "Honoured Guest" award for his contribution to cinema and art.
He has also been honoured with Civilian Awards like the Padma Shri in 2004 and the Padma Bhushan in 2016 by the Indian Government for his contribution to Indian cinema and arts.
Anupam Kher tied the knot with Kirron Kher, a fellow Indian actress, in 1985. Kher became a stepfather to Kirron's son, actor Sikandar Kher. He was appointed as the goodwill ambassador of the Pratham Education Foundation in 2010, which works to improve the education of children in India. In 2021, Kher received an honorary doctorate degree in Philosophy of Hindu Studies from the Hindu University of America.- Producer
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Paresh Rawal is a renowned Indian film actor, comedian, and producer best known for his work in Bollywood films. He has also worked in Telugu, a few Tamil, and a few Gujarati movies. Highly versatile, he has essayed several types of characters, including comic, serious, and villainous character roles.
Born and brought up in Bombay (now Mumbai), he is an alumnus of Narsee Monjee College of Commerce & Economics, Mumbai. He started doing Gujarati theatres after graduating from Bombay University in 1974.
He entered Bollywood with the film Holi (1984), playing a supporting role. He also acted in the Doordarshan TV serial Bante Bigadte (1985). However, he got his first big break in Naam (1986) the following year.
He went on to act in over 100 films between the 1980s and the 1990s. He essayed mostly negative characters in films such as, Kabzaa (1988), Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja (1993), King Uncle (1993), and Baazi (1995).
In Ketan Mehta's Sardar (1993), he played the lead role of freedom fighter Vallabhbhai Patel. According to him, this was a turning point for him as an actor, as studying the character of Sardar Patel in detail inspired him to work harder and improve upon his craft. He also states that it changed him, giving him a deeper understanding of Indian history and helping him appreciate these great legends' sacrifices to achieve freedom for the nation.
Rawal started with comedy in Andaz Apna Apna (1994), where he played a double role. His easy, effortless, and natural acting wowed critics and the masses.
Rawal has won acclaim for his work in the Telugu film industry, such as Kshana Kshanam (1991), Money (1993), Govindha Govindha (1993), Rikshavodu (1995), and Bavagaru Bagunnara? (1998).
His other noteworthy works in Hindi cinema include Shiva (1990), Mohra (1994), Tamanna (1998), Aitraaz (2004), Table No. 21 (2013), and Zila Ghaziabad (2013).
Rawal achieved recognition, both as a comedian and as a supporting actor in films, including Chachi 420 (1997), Nayak: The Real Hero (2001), Aankhen (2002), Awara Paagal Deewana (2002), Garam Masala (2005), Chup Chup Ke (2006), Welcome (2007), Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (2008), Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge? (2010), OMG: Oh My God! (2012), Tiger Zinda Hai (2017), Sanju (2018), and Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019).
In 2000, he played the unintelligent but kind Marathi landlord Baburao Ganpatrao Apte in Hera Pheri (2000). His performance won him the Filmfare Best Comedian Award. The sequel, Phir Hera Pheri (2006), was equally successful, leaving audiences begging for more. He is still remembered for this role.
Rawal went on to play the lead role in Aankhen (2002), where he depicted one of the three blind men who planned to rob a bank. Co-starring Amitabh Bachchan, Aditya Pancholi, Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal, and Sushmita Sen, this film established him as a master of comedy. Over the next few years, he mostly played comic roles.
In 2010, he appeared based on honour killing in the film Aakrosh (2010). In 2021, Rawal appeared in Toofaan (2021), a sports-based movie directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and starring Farhan Akhtar, who plays a national-level boxer. The film started streaming worldwide on July 16, 2021, on Amazon Prime Video.
Having worked in over 240 films, Rawal has won numerous accolades and awards, including the National Film Awards 1994: Best Supporting Actor for Sir (1993), and IIFA Awards 2001: Best Performance for Hera Pheri (2000). He also won the Producers Guild Film Awards 2010: Best Actor in a Comic Role: Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge? (2010).
Rawal is also a politician. He was victorious as the Bharatiya Janata Party's Member of Parliament (MP) from the Ahmedabad East constituency in the 2014 Indian general election. On September 10, 2020, the President of India appointed him as the National School of Drama Chairperson.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Randeep Singh Hooda, known for his role as Saju in Netflix's original film Extraction, was born on 20th August 1976 in the city of Rohtak, Haryana, in India. He has lived in Middle Eastern countries like Libya and Iraq.
Acting Career: Hooda's debut film was Mira Nair's Oscar-nominated Monsoon Wedding. It won multiple awards globally, including a BAFTA and Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. After Monsoon Wedding, Hooda joined noted Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah's theater troupe Motley, and dedicated many years of his life to theater in an attempt to immerse himself in the craft. Hooda's filmography is studded with both Mira Nair's and Deepa Mehta's films, who coincidentally were the only two directors from India to have gotten Oscar nominations in recent times. In 2005, Hooda was cast as the male lead in Ram Gopal Varma's gangster film D.
In 2010, Hooda appeared in Milan Luthria's 'Once Upon a Time in Mumbai'. The following year, Hooda featured in a National Award-winner, Tigmanshu Dhulia's romantic thriller 'Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster'. His portrayal of a gangster who falls in love with a married woman while working as her driver earned rave reviews from critics. In 2012, he starred in Kunal Deshmukh's crime thriller 'Jannat 2', followed by Pooja Bhatt's erotic thriller 'Jism 2' opposite international adult star Sunny Leone. In 2013, he starred in Vishesh Film's 'Murder 3'. Later that year, Hooda acted in yet another National Award-winner, Ketan Mehta's biographical period film 'Rang Rasiya', based on the life of 19th-century Indian painter Raja Ravi Varma. He also featured in the thriller 'John Day', alongside Naseeruddin Shah. He then appeared in a segment directed by Karan Johar for the anthology film 'Bombay Talkies'. The film was made as a celebration of the 100th year of Indian cinema and was screened at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. In 2014, Hooda appeared opposite Alia Bhatt in Imtiaz Ali's 'Highway'. To get used to his character, who was a kidnapper and had a cold, distant relationship with Bhatt's character, he avoided speaking to her for about twenty-five days. He then starred in Sajid Nadiadwala's action film 'Kick', which emerged as the biggest blockbuster that year.
In 2015, Hooda portrayed serial killer Charles Sobhraj in Prawaal Raman's Main Aur Charles. In 2016, Hooda starred in four films. The first was a drama thriller, Laal Rang. 'Sarabjit', was his next release, where he portrayed the role of Sarabjit Singh, who was captured by Pakistan and later sentenced to death by their Supreme Court for alleged terrorism. Hooda dramatically shed 30 kg to play a boxer then and gained 20 kg for the preparation of the role to play a prisoner, all in just a year's time. This feat drew awe and accolades from the film industry and critics alike. The film also premiered at the 69th Cannes Film Festival.
Hooda's next release was Deepak Tijori's 'Do Lafzon Ki Kahani'. His final release of 2016 was the sports drama 'Sultan'. In 2018, he returned to the silver screen again with 'Baaghi 2'. Due to his spiritually immersive approach towards his roles, Hooda has dedicated years to preparing for his characters and has also, on occasion, refused to leave the character behind. From 2016 to 2018 he dedicated himself to an unfinished film, "Battle of Saragarhi", about a Sikh character, where he grew his beard, hair and he refused to cut them as a devout Sikh and rejected further roles until that movie got finished. The film, which was based on the bravest last stands in human history, got eventually shelved.
It was during this time that he auditioned for Extraction, a Netflix production with the Russo Brothers. Extraction marks Hooda's debut into mainstream, commercial Hollywood and his first Netflix original film. He has garnered critical for his role of Saju. He is engaged with the following films:
1. Extraction, with Chris Hemsworth in the lead by Russo Brothers. 2. Radhe, as the antagonist, with Salman Khan in the main lead, work in progress. 3. Love Aaj Kal 2 in the lead role (released on 14th February 2020) where his work has been appreciated both among the public and industry fraternity. 4. Rat on a Highway, a single actor motion picture directed by Vivek Chauhan. 5. Mira Nair's film "A Suitable Boy", in a cameo appearance. 6. 'Unfair & lovely' as a lead role directed by Balwinder Singh.
Equestrian Sports: Randeep Hooda is the only Bollywood actor who regularly participates in professional equestrian sports, including polo and show jumping. He has always described riding as his "passion". He owns nine horses.
In 2009, Hooda won a silver medal at an open dressage event organized by the Equestrian Federation of India in Delhi. In 2014, he won seven medals, including three gold and two silver and bronze medals respectively, at the National Equestrian Championship in dressage and show-jumping events. Additionally, he has won a silver medal each at the Delhi Horse Show in 2009, and the Bombay Horse Show in 2011.
Social Activism: During the 2018 devastating Kerala floods, Hooda stood on ground zero in Kerala and provided relief work in person. He kept it under wraps till a local channel recognized him and put out a clip on twitter. The news then went on to become viral. He is the brand ambassador for Prayas, another NGO that rehabilitates delinquent juveniles. Hooda is very active in raising funds for them and often organizes and features in their fund raising campaigns. He has recently taken up the cause of tiger conservation and hopes to bring about a change in the human-animal conflict areas in India, which is the biggest cause of plummeting populations of big cats across the globe. Hooda got appointed by the United Nations Environment Program as ambassador for aquatic migratory species on 5th February 2020.- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Emraan Hashmi (born 24 March 1979) is an Indian film actor who appears in Hindi language films. Through his successful career, Hashmi has received three Filmfare Award nominations and has established himself as one of the most popular and highest-paid actor of Hindi cinema.
Hashmi was born and raised in Mumbai. After graduating from the University of Mumbai, he worked as an assistant director for the 2002 horror film Raaz (2002) before pursuing a career in acting. The following year, he made his acting debut with a leading role in the crime thriller Footpath (2003), a moderate box-office success. By 2004, Hashmi had established him as one of the leading actor of Hindi cinema with roles in the successful like Zeher (2005), Aashiq Banaya Aapne (2005), Aksar (2006) and Gangster (2006), His other critically and commercially successful films. However, he followed these by starring in a series of films that under-performed at the box office, although his performance in the romantic drama Awarapan (2007) was praised.
The year 2008 marked a turning point for Hashmi when he played conman in the crime drama Jannat: In Search of Heaven... (2008). He subsequently received wide critical recognition for portraying unconventional characters in several commercially successful films, including the horror thriller Raaz: The Mystery Continues (2009), the biographical drama The Dirty Picture (2011), the psychological thriller Murder 2 (2011), the romantic comedy Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji (2011), the crime thriller Jannat 2 (2012), the horror thriller Raaz 3 (2012) , and the supernatural thriller Ek Thi Daayan (2013). Hashmi's acclaimed performances in the action thriller Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai (2010) and the political thriller Shanghai (2012) garnered him two Best Supporting Actor nominations at the Filmfare Awards. He also received praise for his role in the 2015 drama Hamari Adhuri Kahani (2015).
Hashmi is a part of the Bhatt family, which includes members that have had careers in the Bollywood industry as producers, actors, film directors, and writers. The Bhatt family began working in the film industry in the 1930s and continues into the 2020s. Hashmi joined the Bhatt family when his grandmother Purnima's sister Shirin Banu became the partner of Nanabhai Bhatt, the patriarch of the Bhatt family. Shirin Banu was the mother of director Mahesh Bhatt and producer Mukesh Bhatt, making both of them Hashmi's uncles. Shirin Banu was also the grandmother of actresses Pooja Bhatt and her step sister Alia Bhatt, making both of them Hashmi's cousins.
In addition to being a part of the Bhatt family, Hashmi is also a part of the Varma family, which includes members that have had careers in the Bollywood industry as producers, distributors, actors, film directors, writers and film editors. The Varma family began working in the film industry in the late 1940s and continues into the 2020s. Hashmi joined the Varma Family when his grandmother Purnima married Bhagwan Das Varma, a founder of Varma Films and a patriarch of the Varma family.- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
For Amrish Puri, it was virtually the 'Summer of 42'. The actor's long simmering affair with acting found culmination when he reached his early 40s. And while his dream of playing the hero may have been thwarted, he went on to become the most loved villains of all time. He was also an artiste who redefined the dynamics for character actors. If he wowed the critics with his rough-edged portrayals in the art films of Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani, he won over the masala movie buffs with his louder-than-life histrionics. Puri with his reverberating baritone, piercing glance and dramatized dialogue delivery was a formidable figure against the hero. His costumes were all about prolific imagination and his one-liners ranging from, 'Mogambo khush hua' to 'Dong kabhi wrong nahin hota' are now part of cinema glossary. Puri even went ahead and worked in Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom and Richard Attenborough's Gandhi, only to return and endorse the diversity that is Bollywood.
But behind the tough facade was a genteel person. "Upright and a true karma-yogi," as son and marine navigator Rajeev Puri describes him. "People from all walks of life loved him - even the police and the politicians." Rajeev adds, "A decade after his demise, some film or the other of his is constantly playing on channels - out of the 350 he did, 200 were hits!" And when people till date come up to him requesting for a photograph because he's the famed Mogambo's (Puri's character in Mr India) son, Rajeev realizes that Mogambo truly is larger than life, in fact beyond it.
Puri graduated from the BM College in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. Puri was a leader of the RSS youth wing there and that explains why he remained a stickler for discipline and punctuality. In the '50s, he moved to Mumbai and found a job with the Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). There he met my mother Urmila, a Konkani, and married her. His elder brothers Chaman Puri and Madan Puri were also actors. In fact, we lived with Madanji at Kings Circle for a few years before we shifted to our Santacruz home. Puri passion was acting. He worked during the day and in the evening did amateur theatre with Ebrahim Alkazi, Satyadev Dubey, Vijay Tendulkar and Girish Karnad among others. In fact, Satyadev Dubey and he began Hindi theatre in Mumbai with plays like Hayavadana and Yugati winning him much applause. He became well known as a stage character actor, which led to him doing ads and finally films in the early '70s.
Believe it or not, Amrish Puri wanted to become a Bollywood movie star, but failed a screen test in 1953. And what a failure it was! Mr. Puri, went on to become one of the most renowned and credible villains in the history of Indian cinema. His most memorable and often quoted role is the character of 'Mogambo' (with the catchphrase "Mogambo Khush Hua"). It is still remembered fondly from Mr. India (1987).
On the silver screen, the very first time we felt that times were changing was when dad went to Jaisalmer to shoot Reshma Aur Shera (1971). It was an Ajanta Arts film directed by Sunil Dutt. A lot of new actors were being featured - Raakhee, Amitabh Bachchan, Ranjeet. Puri brought home pictures of the shoot. Puri's son must have been around 12 then and was excited watching them.
Another film, which was to change his life was Girish Karnad's Kannada film Kaadu (1973) where he played the villainous village headman. Girish Karnad handed his Filmfare Best Director trophy to Amrish as a gesture of appreciation. He was then noticed by Shyam Benegal, who featured him in his films Manthan, Nishant and Bhumika through the '70s. He also became part of Govind Nihalani's critically acclaimed films Party, Vijeta, Aakrosh and Ardh Satya. Dad had a flair for roles that betrayed authority and rode the crest of new wave cinema with his earthiness.
In 1980, director Bapu roped in dad to play Duryodhana in Boney Kapoor's Hum Paanch. Soon other filmmakers started offering him villainous roles in commercial films too. After Feroz Khan's Qurbani (1980) there was no looking back.
One film that took him to the acme of his career was Mr India (1987). As the part menacing part comical Mogambo, he won fans across audiences. Mogambo was a favorite with kids because he was a comic-strip like character. At every function he attended, dad was asked to say the Mogambo dialogue. First Amjad Khan as Gabbar Singh in Sholay (1975) and later dad as Mogambo gave villainy a new status. He went on to become the highest paid villain. Earlier character actors were paid paltry sums as compared to the hero.
Puri's career spanned three decades and around 300 films. Among these his favorites remained Koyla, Vidhaata, Pardes, Chachi 420, Ghatak, Ghayal, Damini, Meri Jung and Saza-E-Kala Pani.
Off camera, his children remember their father as someone who was larger than life, someone who was strict but never unreasonable. Someone who urged us to speak the truth. He urged us to follow the three Ps - patience, perseverance and persistence.
Puri was realistic and that's why he insisted that his children seek a secure profession. He once told his son, "See, acting is my first love. I've been polishing my act for years. It took me long to establish myself. There's no need for you to be awed by the profession. You needn't risk your future. You must complete your education." That's why, I joined the Merchant Navy in 1978. I sailed for 11 years. It used to be fun watching his films on the ship.
As an actor he had a great ability to switch on and off. He was not fond of smoking, drinking or parties. His idols were Dilip Kumar, Motilal, Balraj Sahni and Amitabh Bachchan. He worked with Raj Kumar, Dilip saab, Amitji... he was like a student in front of them and had absolutely no ego. Also, a lot of youngsters began their careers with him like Ajay Devgan in Phool Aur Kaante and Shah Rukh Khan in Deewana. He was easy to work with except that he had no patience with people who didn't respect time.
Puri was particular about having nutritious food. He was largely vegetarian but enjoyed fish. He practiced yoga and was an early riser. He was one of the first members of Talwalkars gym in Mumbai. Also, he preserved his vocal chords. He stayed away from fried stuff. He'd just have a piece of sev puri when we insisted. Once he happened to shave off his hair for a Rakesh Kumar film. He was told his personality looked better that way. The bald look appealed to Steven Spielberg, who then offered him Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, where he played Mola Ram. Puri realized that with a shaved head, he could try different get ups. He was well-versed with the art of make-up and wigs. He knew the concentration of hair that a hairpiece for a 50-year-old character or a 60-year-old character would require. He also spent time with the tailors - in fact, directors often asked him to work on his costumes. He'd pick his own ties, bows, shirts for a role. He enjoyed observing people as he drove in his car. He'd keenly watch the hawaldar, the fit of his shirt, how worn out his shoes were which helped him play one in Gardish.
Puri loved watches. He owned all the possible brands. He was intrigued by its technology and the way each piece was assembled. Each time he'd go abroad, he'd visit a showroom and call me up excitedly, "Tikoo (my pet name) I've bought such a handsome looking watch!" Another fascination he had was for Mercedez Benz cars. He'd keep buying the latest editions. His family maintained his 1983 model in showroom condition.
Known for frequently portraying menacing, sadistic villains, Puri received a huge fan mail of around 50 to 60 letters a day. Some fans would constantly sit on the footpath outside our home to catch a glimpse of him. Women also wrote to him. Many were crazy about him. But he was not a young actor. By the time he got recognition he was 45. My mom did feel possessive with all the attention being showered on him. But she understood. He was at an age where he knew what to absorb and what to keep away from. He was cautious. He did have shades of romance in his role opposite Farida Jalal in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. That subtle equation suited his age. His female co-stars liked him because he was protective about them. He'd check with the production guys whether they were comfortable or not. While he was being pampered, he wanted them to enjoy those facilities too. He was like a father figure to junior artistes too. He'd call up the producers who defaulted on their payments.
Once they were shooting at Amritsar railway station for Gadar - Ek Prem Katha. Huge crowds had gathered and there was so much noise that the shooting couldn't proceed. Sunny Deol wanted to leave. Dad took over and in his baritone said, "Allow us to do our work. I want pin drop silence!" There was a hush and the shooting resumed.
Shyam Benegal cast him in movies such as Nishant (1975), Bhumika (1977), and Manthan (1976). Yash Chopra cast him in Mashaal (1984), the same year that Steven Spielberg cast him in his best-known role outside of India, as Mola Ram in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). His elder brother is none other than Bollywood actor Madan Puri.
Guddu Dhanoa's Jaal The Trap for (2003) was shot in Himachal Pradesh. Unfortunately, Puri met with an accident there. He suffered serious injuries on his face and eye. He lost a lot of blood and consequently had to undergo blood transfusion. Something went wrong there because in the coming years, he developed a blood disorder (myelodysplastic syndrome). It began with weakness and reduced appetite. When he came to know about the fatality of his illness he was shaken. But he had an iron will. He wanted to project a strong side to the world. Puri knew that at age 72 there was little that he could repair and that he was ailing. Jo hona hai woh hoga - that was his stance.
Puri was keen to complete the projects on hand, even though he was in pain. His terminal illness was detected in September 2003 and by December 15, 2004, he had finished all his films - Kachchi Sadak, Mujhse Shaadi Kaoroge, Hulchul, Ksna and Aitraaz despite looking emaciated, pale, frail . He was at home for a brief period. But he didn't want to remain bedridden. When asked how he was feeling he'd just say, "Kal se behtar hoon." Then one day he had a fall at home and suffered a massive brain hemorrhage. He passed away in Mumbai on January 12, 2005 due to a brain hemorrhage
Puri had served as the President of Cine and TV Artistes Association for six years before his demise. As a mark of respect the industry remained shut for two days. The whole road from our house in Juhu to the electric crematorium at Shivaji Park was full with people. There were onlookers perched on trees and buildings.
As a tribute to him the Times Of India carried a piece, which was titled, "No guns only roses." People recall his famous dialogue in Pardes, "What's the bottom line?" Well, for me it would be never doing anything that would disappoint him.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Music Department
Om Puri was an Indian actor who has appeared in both mainstream Indian films and art films. His credits also include appearances in British and American films. He has received an honorary OBE.
Puri was born in Ambala, Haryana. His father worked on the railways and served in the Indian Army. Puri graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India. He is also an alumnus of the 1973 class of National School of Drama where Naseeruddin Shah was a co-student.
Puri had worked in numerous Indian films and in many films produced in the United Kingdom and the United States. He made his film debut in the 1976 film Ghashiram Kotwal, based on a Marathi play of the same name. He has claimed that he was paid "peanuts" for his best work. He had collaborated with Amrish Puri as well as Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil in art films such as Bhavni Bhavai (1980), Sadgati (1981), Ardh Satya (1982), Mirch Masala (1986) and Dharavi (1992). He had been active in cinema. He was critically acclaimed for his performances in many unconventional roles such as a victimized tribal in Aakrosh (1980) (a film in which he spoke only during flash-back sequences); Jimmy's manager in Disco Dancer (1982); a police inspector in Ardh Satya (1982), where he revolts against life-long social, cultural and political persecution and for which he got the National Film Award for Best Actor; the leader of a cell of Sikh militants in Maachis (1996); as a tough cop again in the commercial film Gupt in 1997; and as the courageous father of a martyred soldier in Dhoop (2003). In 1999, Puri acted in a Kannada movie A.K. 47 as a strict police officer who tries to keep the city safe from the underworld - it became a huge commercial hit. Puri's acting in the movie is very memorable. He has rendered his own voice for the Kannada dialogues. In the same year, he starred in the successful British comedy film East is East, where he played a first-generation Pakistani immigrant in the north of England, struggling to come to terms with his far more westernized children. Om Puri had a cameo in the highly acclaimed film Gandhi (1982, directed by Richard Attenborough). In the mid-1990s, he diversified to play character roles in mainstream Hindi cinema, where his roles are more tuned to mass audiences than film critics. He became known internationally by starring in many British films such as My Son the Fanatic (1997), East Is East (1999) and The Parole Officer (2001). He appeared in Hollywood films including City of Joy (1992), opposite Patrick Swayze; Wolf (1994) alongside Jack Nicholson; and The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) opposite Val Kilmer. In 2007, he appeared as General Zia-ul-Haq in Charlie Wilson's War, which stars Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. He has worked in Hindi television serials like Kakkaji Kaheen (1988) (roughly meaning "Uncle says") as a paan-chewing 'Kakkaji', which was a parody on politicians, and Mr. Yogi (1989) as a suave 'Sutradhaar' who enjoys pulling the protagonist's leg. These two serials underlined Om Puri's versatility as a comedian. He received critical acclaim for him performance in Govind Nihalani's television film Tamas (1987) based on a Hindi novel of the same name. He essayed comic roles in Hindi films like Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro which reached a cult status, followed by Chachi 420 (1997), Hera Pheri (2000), Chor Machaye Shor (2002) and Malamaal Weekly (2006). His more recent Hindi film roles include Singh Is Kinng, Mere Baap Pehle Aap and Billu. Puri was seen in the role of Mohammad Ali Kasuri in Road to Sangam (2009). In 2010, he appeared in The Hangman. In 2011 he was in the Indian action movie Don 2. He had also worked in Aahat TV Series in some episodes during second season which was aired between 2004-2005 on Sony channel.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II was born on June 9, 1963 in Owensboro, Kentucky, to Betty Sue Palmer (née Wells), a waitress, and John Christopher Depp, a civil engineer. He was raised in Florida. He dropped out of school when he was 15, and fronted a series of music-garage bands, including one named 'The Kids'. When he married Lori A. Depp, he took a job as a ballpoint-pen salesman to support himself and his wife. A visit to Los Angeles, California, with his wife, however, happened to be a blessing in disguise, when he met up with actor Nicolas Cage, who advised him to turn to acting, which culminated in Depp's film debut in the low-budget horror film, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), where he played a teenager who falls prey to dream-stalking demon Freddy Krueger.
In 1987 he shot to stardom when he replaced Jeff Yagher in the role of undercover cop Tommy Hanson in the popular TV series 21 Jump Street (1987). In 1990, after numerous roles in teen-oriented films, his first of a handful of great collaborations with director Tim Burton came about when Depp played the title role in Edward Scissorhands (1990). Following the film's success, Depp carved a niche for himself as a serious, somewhat dark, idiosyncratic performer, consistently selecting roles that surprised critics and audiences alike. He continued to gain critical acclaim and increasing popularity by appearing in many features before re-joining with Burton in the lead role of Ed Wood (1994). In 1997 he played an undercover FBI agent in the fact-based film Donnie Brasco (1997), opposite Al Pacino; in 1998 he appeared in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), directed by Terry Gilliam; and then, in 1999, he appeared in the sci-fi/horror film The Astronaut's Wife (1999). The same year he teamed up again with Burton in Sleepy Hollow (1999), brilliantly portraying Ichabod Crane.
Depp has played many characters in his career, including another fact-based one, Insp. Fred Abberline in From Hell (2001). He stole the show from screen greats such as Antonio Banderas in the finale to Robert Rodriguez's "mariachi" trilogy, Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003). In that same year he starred in the marvelous family blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), playing a character that only the likes of Depp could pull off: the charming, conniving and roguish Capt. Jack Sparrow. The film's enormous success has opened several doors for his career and included an Oscar nomination. He appeared as the central character in the Stephen King-based movie, Secret Window (2004); as the kind-hearted novelist James Barrie in the factually-based Finding Neverland (2004), where he co-starred with Kate Winslet; and Rochester in the British film, The Libertine (2004). Depp collaborated again with Burton in a screen adaptation of Roald Dahl's novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and later in Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Dark Shadows (2012).
Off-screen, Depp has dated several female celebrities, and has been engaged to Sherilyn Fenn, Jennifer Grey, Winona Ryder and Kate Moss. He was married to Lori Anne Allison in 1983, but divorced her in 1985. Depp has two children with his former long-time partner, French singer/actress Vanessa Paradis: Lily-Rose Melody, born in 1999 and John Christopher "Jack" III, born in 2002. He married actress/producer Amber Heard in 2015, divorcing a few years later.- Producer
- Actor
- Writer
Few actors in the world have had a career quite as diverse as Leonardo DiCaprio's. DiCaprio has gone from relatively humble beginnings, as a supporting cast member of the sitcom Growing Pains (1985) and low budget horror movies, such as Critters 3 (1991), to a major teenage heartthrob in the 1990s, as the hunky lead actor in movies such as Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Titanic (1997), to then become a leading man in Hollywood blockbusters, made by internationally renowned directors such as Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan.
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio was born in Los Angeles, California, the only child of Irmelin DiCaprio (née Indenbirken) and former comic book artist George DiCaprio. His father is of Italian and German descent, and his mother, who is German-born, is of German, Ukrainian and Russian ancestry. His middle name, "Wilhelm", was his maternal grandfather's first name. Leonardo's father had achieved minor status as an artist and distributor of cult comic book titles, and was even depicted in several issues of American Splendor, the cult semi-autobiographical comic book series by the late 'Harvey Pekar', a friend of George's. Leonardo's performance skills became obvious to his parents early on, and after signing him up with a talent agent who wanted Leonardo to perform under the stage name "Lenny Williams", DiCaprio began appearing on a number of television commercials and educational programs.
DiCaprio began attracting the attention of producers, who cast him in small roles in a number of television series, such as Roseanne (1988) and The New Lassie (1989), but it wasn't until 1991 that DiCaprio made his film debut in Critters 3 (1991), a low-budget horror movie. While Critters 3 (1991) did little to help showcase DiCaprio's acting abilities, it did help him develop his show-reel, and attract the attention of the people behind the hit sitcom Growing Pains (1985), in which Leonardo was cast in the "Cousin Oliver" role of a young homeless boy who moves in with the Seavers. While DiCaprio's stint on Growing Pains (1985) was very short, as the sitcom was axed the year after he joined, it helped bring DiCaprio into the public's attention and, after the sitcom ended, DiCaprio began auditioning for roles in which he would get the chance to prove his acting chops.
Leonardo took up a diverse range of roles in the early 1990s, including a mentally challenged youth in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), a young gunslinger in The Quick and the Dead (1995) and a drug addict in one of his most challenging roles to date, Jim Carroll in The Basketball Diaries (1995), a role which the late River Phoenix originally expressed interest in. While these diverse roles helped establish Leonardo's reputation as an actor, it wasn't until his role as Romeo Montague in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996) that Leonardo became a household name, a true movie star. The following year, DiCaprio starred in another movie about doomed lovers, Titanic (1997), which went on to beat all box office records held before then, as, at the time, Titanic (1997) became the highest grossing movie of all time, and cemented DiCaprio's reputation as a teen heartthrob. Following his work on Titanic (1997), DiCaprio kept a low profile for a number of years, with roles in The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) and the low-budget The Beach (2000) being some of his few notable roles during this period.
In 2002, he burst back into screens throughout the world with leading roles in Catch Me If You Can (2002) and Gangs of New York (2002), his first of many collaborations with director Martin Scorsese. With a current salary of $20 million a movie, DiCaprio is now one of the biggest movie stars in the world. However, he has not limited his professional career to just acting in movies, as DiCaprio is a committed environmentalist, who is actively involved in many environmental causes, and his commitment to this issue led to his involvement in The 11th Hour, a documentary movie about the state of the natural environment. As someone who has gone from small roles in television commercials to one of the most respected actors in the world, DiCaprio has had one of the most diverse careers in cinema. DiCaprio continued to defy conventions about the types of roles he would accept, and with his career now seeing him leading all-star casts in action thrillers such as The Departed (2006), Shutter Island (2010) and Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010), DiCaprio continues to wow audiences by refusing to conform to any cliché about actors.
In 2012, he played a mustache twirling villain in Django Unchained (2012), and then tragic literary character Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby (2013) and Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).
DiCaprio is passionate about environmental and humanitarian causes, having donated $1,000,000 to earthquake relief efforts in 2010, the same year he contributed $1,000,000 to the Wildlife Conservation Society.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Rami Said Malek (born May 12, 1981) is an American actor. He won a Critics' Choice Award and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his lead role as Elliot Alderson in the USA Network television series Mr. Robot. He also received Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, and TCA Award nominations.
Malek has acted in supporting roles for other film and television series such as Night at the Museum trilogy, Fox comedy series The War at Home (2005-2007), HBO miniseries The Pacific (2010), Larry Crowne (2011), Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master (2012), The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (2012), the independent film Ain't Them Bodies Saints (2013) and the dramatic film Short Term 12 (2013). He was also in the video-game Until Dawn (2015) as Joshua "Josh" Washington. Malek is set to portray musician Freddie Mercury in the upcoming biographical drama Bohemian Rhapsody (2018).
Rami Said Malek was born in Los Angeles, to an Egyptian Coptic Orthodox family. His late father was a tour guide in Cairo who later sold insurance. His mother is an accountant. Malek was raised in the Coptic faith. He has an identical twin brother named Sami, younger by four minutes, who is a teacher, and an older sister, Yasmine, who is a medical doctor. Malek attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California, where he graduated in 1999 along with actress Rachel Bilson. He attended high school with Kirsten Dunst, who was a grade below and shared a musical theater class with him. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2003 from the University of Evansville in Evansville, Indiana.
In 2004, Malek began his acting career with a guest-starring role on the TV series Gilmore Girls. That same year he voiced "additional characters" for the video game Halo 2, for which he was uncredited. In 2005, he got his Screen Actors Guild card for his work on the Steven Bochco war drama Over There, in which he appeared in two episodes. That same year, he appeared in an episode of Medium and was cast in the prominent recurring role of Kenny, on the Fox comedy series The War at Home. In 2006, Malek made his feature film debut as Pharaoh Ahkmenrah in the comedy Night at the Museum and reprised his role in the sequels Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009) and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014). In the spring of 2007, he appeared on-stage as "Jamie" in the Vitality Productions theatrical presentation of Keith Bunin's The Credeaux Canvas at the Elephant Theatre in Los Angeles.
Since 2015 he has played the lead role in the USA Network computer-hacker, psychological drama Mr. Robot. His performance earned him nominations for the Dorian Award, Satellite Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as wins in the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series and Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.
In September 2016, Buster's Mal Heart, the first movie in which Malek plays a starring role, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to positive reviews. In it, Malek plays one man with two lives, Jonah and Buster. In August 2016, it was announced that Malek will co-star with Charlie Hunnam as Louis Dega in a contemporary remake of the 1973 film Papillon. Papillon premiered September 2017 at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. In November 2016, it was announced that Malek will star as Freddie Mercury in the upcoming Queen biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, to be released on November 2, 2018. In February 2017, Malek won the Young Alumnus Award from his alma mater, University of Evansville. In 2017, he was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
In 1976, if you had told fourteen-year-old Franciscan seminary student Thomas Cruise Mapother IV that one day in the not too distant future he would be Tom Cruise, one of the top 100 movie stars of all time, he would have probably grinned and told you that his ambition was to join the priesthood. Nonetheless, this sensitive, deeply religious youngster who was born in 1962 in Syracuse, New York, was destined to become one of the highest paid and most sought after actors in screen history.
Tom is the only son (among four children) of nomadic parents, Mary Lee (Pfeiffer), a special education teacher, and Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electrical engineer. His parents were both from Louisville, Kentucky, and he has German, Irish, and English ancestry. Young Tom spent his boyhood always on the move, and by the time he was 14 he had attended 15 different schools in the U.S. and Canada. He finally settled in Glen Ridge, New Jersey with his mother and her new husband. While in high school, Tom wanted to become a priest but pretty soon he developed an interest in acting and abandoned his plans of becoming a priest, dropped out of school, and at age 18 headed for New York and a possible acting career. The next 15 years of his life are the stuff of legends. He made his film debut with a small part in Endless Love (1981) and from the outset exhibited an undeniable box office appeal to both male and female audiences.
With handsome movie star looks and a charismatic smile, within 5 years Tom Cruise was starring in some of the top-grossing films of the 1980s including Top Gun (1986); The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989). By the 1990s he was one of the highest-paid actors in the world earning an average 15 million dollars a picture in such blockbuster hits as Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996) and Jerry Maguire (1996), for which he received an Academy Award Nomination for best actor. Tom Cruise's biggest franchise, Mission Impossible, has also earned a total of 3 billion dollars worldwide. Tom Cruise has also shown lots of interest in producing, with his biggest producer credits being the Mission Impossible franchise.
In 1990 he renounced his devout Catholic beliefs and embraced The Church of Scientology claiming that Scientology teachings had cured him of the dyslexia that had plagued him all of his life. A kind and thoughtful man well known for his compassion and generosity, Tom Cruise is one of the best liked members of the movie community. He was married to actress Nicole Kidman until 2001. Thomas Cruise Mapother IV has indeed come a long way from the lonely wanderings of his youth to become one of the biggest movie stars ever.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
With his breakthrough performance as Eames in Christopher Nolan's sci-fi thriller Inception (2010), English actor Tom Hardy has been brought to the attention of mainstream audiences worldwide. However, the versatile actor has been steadily working on both stage and screen since his television debut in the miniseries Band of Brothers (2001). After being cast in the World War II drama, Hardy left his studies at the prestigious Drama Centre in London and was subsequently cast as Twombly in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down (2001) and as the villain Shinzon in Star Trek: Nemesis (2002).
Edward Thomas Hardy was born on September 15, 1977 in Hammersmith, London; his mother, Elizabeth Anne (Barrett), is an artist and painter, and his father, Chips Hardy, is a writer. He is of English and Irish descent. Hardy was brought up in East Sheen, London, and first studied at Reed's School. His education continued at Tower House School, then at Richmond Drama School, and subsequently at the Drama Centre London, along with fellow Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender. After winning a modeling competition at age 21, he had a brief contract with the agency Models One.
Tom spent his teens and early twenties battling delinquency, alcoholism and drug addiction; after completing his work on Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), he sought treatment and has also admitted that his battles with addiction ended his five-year marriage to Sarah Ward. Returning to work in 2003, Hardy was awarded the Evening Standard Most Promising Newcomer Award for his theatre performances in the productions of "In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings" and "Blood". In 2003, Tom also co-starred in the play "The Modernists" with Paul Popplewell, Jesse Spencer and Orlando Wells.
During the next five years, Hardy worked consistently in film, television and theatre, playing roles as varied as Robert Dudley in the BBC's The Virgin Queen (2005), Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist (2007) and starring in "The Man of Mode" at the National Theatre. On the silver screen, he appeared in the crime thriller Layer Cake (2004) with Daniel Craig, Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2006), and the romp Scenes of a Sexual Nature (2006).
In 2006, Hardy created "Shotgun", an underground theatre company along with director Robert Delamere, and directed a play, penned by his father for the company, called "Blue on Blue". In 2007, Hardy received a best actor BAFTA nomination for his touching performance as Stuart Shorter in the BBC adaptation of Alexander Masters' bestselling biography Stuart: A Life Backwards (2007). Hailed for his transformative character acting, Hardy was lauded for his emotionally and physically convincing portrayal in the ill-fated and warmhearted tale of Shorter, a homeless and occasionally violent man suffering from addiction and muscular dystrophy.
The following year, he appeared as gay hoodlum Handsome Bob in the Guy Ritchie film RocknRolla (2008), but this would be his next transformation that would prove his extensive range and stun critics. In the film Bronson (2008), Hardy played the notorious Charles Bronson (given name, Michael Peterson), the "most violent prisoner in Britain". Bald, pumped-up, and outfitted with Bronson's signature strongman mustache, Hardy is unrecognizable and gives a harrowing performance that is physically fearless and psychologically unsettling. Director Nicolas Winding Refn breaks the fourth wall with Hardy retelling his tales directly to viewers as well as performing them outright before an audience of his own imagining. The performance mixes terrifying brutality, vaudevillian showmanship, wry humor, and an alarming amount of commitment, and won Hardy a British Independent Film Award for Best Actor. The performance got Hollywood's attention, and in 2009, Hardy was named one of Variety's "10 Actors to Watch". That year, he continued to garner praise for his starring role in The Take (2009), a four-part adaptation of Martina Cole's bestselling crime novel, as well as for his performance as Heathcliff in a version of Wuthering Heights (2009).
Recent work includes the aforementioned breakthrough appearance in Inception (2010) alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Ken Watanabe, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard and Elliot Page. The movie was released in July 2010 and became one of top 25 highest grossing films of all time, collecting eight Oscar nominations (including Best Picture) and winning four.
Other films include Warrior (2011), opposite Joel Edgerton, the story of two estranged brothers facing the fight of a lifetime from director Gavin O'Connor, and This Means War (2012), directed by McG and co-starring Reese Witherspoon and Chris Pine. Tom also starred in the heralded Cold War thriller, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) with Colin Firth and Gary Oldman. Hardy rejoined Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight Rises (2012); he played the villain role of Bane opposite Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Gary Oldman. Hardy's menacing physique and his character's scrambled, hard-to-distinguish voice became a major discussion point as the film was released.
Outside of performing, Hardy is the patron for the charity "Flack", which is an organization to aid the recovery of the homeless in Cambridge. And in 2010, Hardy was named an Ambassador for The Prince's Trust, which helps disadvantaged youth. On the recent stage, he starred in the Brett C. Leonard play "The Long Red Road" in early 2010. Written for Hardy and directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, the play was staged at Chicago's Goodman Theater.
In 2015, Hardy starred as the iconic Mad Max in George Miller's reboot of his franchise, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). He also collected a British Independent Film Award for his portrayal of both the Kray twins, Ronnie and Reggie, in Legend (2015), and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as John Fitzgerald in The Revenant (2015). Hardy also starred on the BBC series Peaky Blinders (2013), alongside Cillian Murphy, and on the television series Taboo (2017), both created by Steven Knight.
He has an outlaw biker story among other projects in development. In 2010, Hardy became engaged to fellow English actress Charlotte Riley, whom he starred with in The Take (2009) and Wuthering Heights (2009), and is raising a young son, Louis Thomas Hardy, with ex-girlfriend Rachael Speed. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire at the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours for his services to drama.- Producer
- Actor
- Writer
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born in Concord, California, to Janet Marylyn (Frager), a hospital worker, and Amos Mefford Hanks, an itinerant cook. His mother's family, originally surnamed "Fraga", was entirely Portuguese, while his father was of mostly English ancestry. Tom grew up in what he has called a "fractured" family. He moved around a great deal after his parents' divorce, living with a succession of step-families. No problems, no alcoholism - just a confused childhood. He has no acting experience in college and credits the fact that he could not get cast in a college play with actually starting his career. He went downtown, and auditioned for a community theater play, was invited by the director of that play to go to Cleveland, and there his acting career started.
Ron Howard was working on Splash (1983), a fantasy-comedy about a mermaid who falls in love with a business executive. Howard considered Hanks for the role of the main character's wisecracking brother, which eventually went to John Candy. Instead, Hanks landed the lead role and the film went on to become a surprise box office success, grossing more than $69 million. After several flops and a moderate success with the comedy Dragnet (1987), Hanks' stature in the film industry rose. The broad success with the fantasy-comedy Big (1988) established him as a major Hollywood talent, both as a box office draw and within the film industry as an actor. For his performance in the film, Hanks earned his first Academy Award nomination as Best Actor.
Hanks climbed back to the top again with his portrayal of a washed-up baseball legend turned manager in A League of Their Own (1992). Hanks has stated that his acting in earlier roles was not great, but that he subsequently improved. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Hanks noted his "modern era of movie making ... because enough self-discovery has gone on ... My work has become less pretentiously fake and over the top". This "modern era" began for Hanks, first with Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and then with Philadelphia (1993). The former was a blockbuster success about a widower who finds true love over the radio airwaves. Richard Schickel of Time magazine called his performance "charming", and most critics agreed that Hanks' portrayal ensured him a place among the premier romantic-comedy stars of his generation.
In Philadelphia, he played a gay lawyer with AIDS who sues his firm for discrimination. Hanks lost 35 pounds and thinned his hair in order to appear sickly for the role. In a review for People, Leah Rozen stated, "Above all, credit for Philadelphia's success belongs to Hanks, who makes sure that he plays a character, not a saint. He is flat-out terrific, giving a deeply felt, carefully nuanced performance that deserves an Oscar." Hanks won the 1993 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Philadelphia. During his acceptance speech, he revealed that his high school drama teacher Rawley Farnsworth and former classmate John Gilkerson, two people with whom he was close, were gay.
Hanks followed Philadelphia with the blockbuster Forrest Gump (1994) which grossed a worldwide total of over $600 million at the box office. Hanks remarked: "When I read the script for Gump, I saw it as one of those kind of grand, hopeful movies that the audience can go to and feel ... some hope for their lot and their position in life ... I got that from the movies a hundred million times when I was a kid. I still do." Hanks won his second Best Actor Academy Award for his role in Forrest Gump, becoming only the second actor to have accomplished the feat of winning consecutive Best Actor Oscars.
Hanks' next role - astronaut and commander Jim Lovell, in the docudrama Apollo 13 (1995) - reunited him with Ron Howard. Critics generally applauded the film and the performances of the entire cast, which included actors Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris, and Kathleen Quinlan. The movie also earned nine Academy Award nominations, winning two. Later that year, Hanks starred in Disney/Pixar's computer-animated film Toy Story (1995), as the voice of Sheriff Woody. A year later, he made his directing debut with the musical comedy That Thing You Do! (1996) about the rise and fall of a 1960s pop group, also playing the role of a music producer.
As of 2022, Hanks is 66-years-old. He has never retired from acting, and has remained active in the film industry for more than four decades.- Producer
- Actor
- Executive
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt was born on December 18, 1963 in Shawnee, Oklahoma and raised in Springfield, Missouri to Jane Etta Pitt (née Hillhouse), a school counselor & William Alvin "Bill" Pitt, a truck company manager. At Kickapoo High School, Pitt was involved in sports, debating, student government and school musicals. Pitt attended the University of Missouri, where he majored in journalism with a focus on advertising. He occasionally acted in fraternity shows. He left college two credits short of graduating to move to California. Before he became successful at acting, Pitt supported himself by driving strippers in limos, moving refrigerators and dressing as a giant chicken while working for El Pollo Loco.
Pitt's earliest credited roles were in television, starting on the daytime soap opera Another World (1964) before appearing in the recurring role of Randy on the legendary prime time soap opera Dallas (1978). Following a string of guest appearances on various television series through the 1980s, Pitt gained widespread attention with a small part in Thelma & Louise (1991), in which he played a sexy criminal who romanced and conned Geena Davis. This led to starring roles in badly received films such as Johnny Suede (1991) & Cool World (1992).
But Pitt's career hit an upswing with his casting in A River Runs Through It (1992), which cemented his status as an multi-layered actor as opposed to just a pretty face. Pitt's subsequent projects were as quirky and varied in tone as his performances, ranging from his unforgettably comic cameo as stoner roommate Floyd in True Romance (1993) to romantic roles in such visually lavish films as Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) and Legends of the Fall (1994), to an emotionally tortured detective in the horror-thriller Se7en (1995). His portrayal of frenetic oddball Jeffrey Goines in 12 Monkeys (1995) won him a Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role.
Pitt's portrayal of Achilles in the big-budget period drama Troy (2004) helped establish his appeal as an action star and was closely followed by a co-starring role in the stylish spy-versus-spy flick Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). It was on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith that Pitt, who married Jennifer Aniston in a highly publicized ceremony in 2000, met Angelina Jolie. Pitt left Aniston for Jolie in 2005, a break-up that continues to fuel tabloid stories years after its occurrence.
He continues to wildly vary his film choices, appearing in everything from high-concept popcorn flicks such as Megamind (2010) to adventurous critic-bait like Inglourious Basterds (2009) and The Tree of Life (2011). He has received two Best Actor Oscar nominations, for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and Moneyball (2011). In 2014, he starred in the war film Fury (2014), opposite Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Jon Bernthal, and Michael Peña.
Pitt and Jolie have 6 children, 3 adopted & 3 biological.- Actor
- Producer
- Editorial Department
Christian Charles Philip Bale was born in Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK on January 30, 1974, to English parents Jennifer "Jenny" (James) and David Bale. His mother was a circus performer and his father, who was born in South Africa, was a commercial pilot. The family lived in different countries throughout Bale's childhood, including England, Portugal, and the United States. Bale acknowledges the constant change was one of the influences on his career choice.
His first acting job was a cereal commercial in 1983; amazingly, the next year, he debuted on the West End stage in "The Nerd". A role in the 1986 NBC mini-series Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986) caught Steven Spielberg's eye, leading to Bale's well-documented role in Empire of the Sun (1987). For the range of emotions he displayed as the star of the war epic, he earned a special award by the National Board of Review for Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor.
Adjusting to fame and his difficulties with attention (he thought about quitting acting early on), Bale appeared in Kenneth Branagh's 1989 adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry V (1989) and starred as Jim Hawkins in a TV movie version of Treasure Island (1990). Bale worked consistently through the 1990s, acting and singing in Newsies (1992), Swing Kids (1993), Little Women (1994), The Portrait of a Lady (1996), The Secret Agent (1996), Metroland (1997), Velvet Goldmine (1998), All the Little Animals (1998), and A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999). Toward the end of the decade, with the rise of the Internet, Bale found himself becoming one of the most popular online celebrities around, though he, with a couple notable exceptions, maintained a private, tabloid-free mystique.
Bale roared into the next decade with a lead role in American Psycho (2000), director Mary Harron's adaptation of the controversial Bret Easton Ellis novel. In the film, Bale played a murderous Wall Street executive obsessed with his own physicality - a trait for which Bale would become a specialist. Subsequently, the 10th Anniversary issue for "Entertainment Weekly" crowned Bale one of the "Top 8 Most Powerful Cult Figures" of the past decade, citing his cult status on the Internet. EW also called Bale one of the "Most Creative People in Entertainment", and "Premiere" lauded him as one of the "Hottest Leading Men Under 30".
Bale was truly on the Hollywood radar at this time, and he turned in a range of performances in the remake Shaft (2000), Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001), the balmy Laurel Canyon (2002), and Reign of Fire (2002), a dragons-and-magic commercial misfire that has its share of defenders.
Two more cult films followed: Equilibrium (2002) and The Machinist (2004), the latter of which gained attention mainly due to Bale's physical transformation - he dropped a reported 60+ pounds for the role of a lathe operator with a secret that causes him to suffer from insomnia for over a year.
Bale's abilities to transform his body and to disappear into a character influenced the decision to cast him in Batman Begins (2005), the first chapter in Christopher Nolan's definitive trilogy that proved a dark-themed narrative could resonate with audiences worldwide. The film also resurrected a character that had been shelved by Warner Bros. after a series of demising returns, capped off by the commercial and critical failure of Batman & Robin (1997). A quiet, personal victory for Bale: he accepted the role after the passing of his father in late 2003, an event that caused him to question whether he would continue performing.
Bale segued into two indie features in the wake of Batman's phenomenal success: The New World (2005) and Harsh Times (2005). He continued working with respected independent directors in 2006's Rescue Dawn (2006), Werner Herzog's feature version of his earlier, Emmy-nominated documentary, Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997). Leading up to the second Batman film, Bale starred in The Prestige (2006), the remake of 3:10 to Yuma (2007), and a reunion with director Todd Haynes in the experimental Bob Dylan biography, I'm Not There (2007).
Anticipation for The Dark Knight (2008) was spun into unexpected heights with the tragic passing of Heath Ledger, whose performance as The Joker became the highlight of the sequel. Bale's graceful statements to the press reminded us of the days of the refined Hollywood star as the second installment exceeded the box-office performance of its predecessor.
Bale's next role was the eyebrow-raising decision to take over the role of John Connor in the Schwarzenegger-less Terminator Salvation (2009), followed by a turn as federal agent Melvin Purvis in Michael Mann's Public Enemies (2009). Both films were hits but not the blockbusters they were expected to be.
For all his acclaim and box-office triumphs, Bale would earn his first Oscar in 2011 in the wake of The Fighter (2010)'s critical and commercial success. Bale earned the Best Supporting Actor award for his portrayal of Dicky Eklund, brother to and trainer of boxer "Irish" Micky Ward, played by Mark Wahlberg. Bale again showed his ability to reshape his body with another gaunt, skeletal transformation.
Bale then turned to another auteur, Yimou Zhang, for the epic The Flowers of War (2011), in which Bale portrayed a priest trapped in the midst of the Rape of Nanking. Bale earned headlines for his attempt to visit with Chinese civil-rights activist Chen Guangcheng, which was blocked by the Chinese government.
Bale capped his role as Bruce Wayne/Batman in The Dark Knight Rises (2012); in the wake of the Aurora, Colorado tragedy, Bale made a quiet pilgrimage to the state to visit with survivors of the attack that left theatergoers dead and injured. He also starred in the thriller Out of the Furnace (2013) with Crazy Heart (2009) writer/director Scott Cooper, and the drama-comedy American Hustle (2013), reuniting with David O. Russell.
Bale will re-team with The New World (2005) director Terrence Malick for two upcoming projects: Knight of Cups (2015) and an as-yet-untitled drama.
In his personal life, he devotes time to charities including Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Foundation. He lives with his wife, Sibi Blazic, and their two children.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Gary Oldman is a talented English movie star and character actor, renowned for his expressive acting style. One of the most celebrated thespians of his generation, with a diverse career encompassing theatre, film and television, he is known for his roles as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986), Drexl in True Romance (1993), George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour (2017), among many others. For much of his career, he was best-known for playing over-the-top antagonists, such as terrorist Egor Korshunov in the 1997 blockbuster Air Force One (1997), though he has reached a new audience with heroic roles in the Harry Potter and Dark Knight franchises. He is also a filmmaker, musician, and author.
Gary Leonard Oldman was born on March 21, 1958 in New Cross, London, England, to Kathleen (Cheriton), a homemaker, and Leonard Bertram Oldman, a welder. He won a scholarship to Britain's Rose Bruford Drama College, in Sidcup, Kent, where he received a B.A. in theatre arts in 1979. He subsequently studied with the Greenwich Young People's Theatre and went on to appear in a number of plays throughout the early '80s, including "The Pope's Wedding," for which he received Time Out's Fringe Award for Best Newcomer of 1985-1986 and the British Theatre Association's Drama Magazine Award as Best Actor for 1985. Before fame, he was employed as a worker in assembly lines and as a porter in an operating theater. He also had jobs selling shoes and beheading pigs while supporting his early acting career.
His film debut was Remembrance (1982), though his most-memorable early role came when he played Sex Pistol Sid Vicious in the biopic Sid and Nancy (1986) picking up the Evening Standard Film Award as Best Newcomer. He then received a Best Actor nomination from BAFTA for his portrayal of '60s playwright Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears (1987).
In the 1990s, Oldman brought to life a series of iconic real-world and fictional villains including Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1991), the title character in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Drexl Spivey in True Romance (1993), Stansfield in Léon: The Professional (1994), Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg in The Fifth Element (1997) and Ivan Korshunov in Air Force One (1997). That decade also saw Oldman portraying Ludwig van Beethoven in biopic Immortal Beloved (1994).
Oldman played the coveted role of Sirius Black in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), giving him a key part in one of the highest-grossing franchises ever. He reprised that role in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007). Oldman also took on the iconic role of Detective James Gordon in writer-director Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005), a role he played again in The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Prominent film critic Mark Kermode, in reviewing The Dark Knight, wrote, "the best performance in the film, by a mile, is Gary Oldman's ... it would be lovely to see him get a[n Academy Award] nomination because actually, he's the guy who gets kind of overlooked in all of this."
Oldman co-starred with Jim Carrey in the 2009 version of A Christmas Carol in which Oldman played three roles. He had a starring role in David Goyer's supernatural thriller The Unborn, released in 2009. In 2010, Oldman co-starred with Denzel Washington in The Book of Eli. He also played a lead role in Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood. Oldman voiced the role of villain Lord Shen and was nominated for an Annie Award for his performance in Kung Fu Panda 2.
In 2011, Oldman portrayed master spy George Smiley in the adaptation of John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and the role scored Oldman his first Academy Award nomination. In 2014, he played one of the lead humans in the science fiction action film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) alongside Jason Clarke and Keri Russell. Also in 2014, Oldman starred alongside Joel Kinnaman, Abbie Cornish, Michael Keaton, and Samuel L. Jackson in the remake of RoboCop (2014), as Norton, the scientist who creates RoboCop.
Aside from acting, Oldman tried his hand at writing and directing for Nil by Mouth (1997). The movie opened the Cannes Film Festival in 1997, and won Kathy Burke a Best Actress prize at the festival.
Oldman has three children, Alfie, with first wife, actress Lesley Manville, and Gulliver and Charlie with his third wife, Donya Fiorentino. In 2017, he married writer and art curator Gisele Schmidt.
In 2018 he won an Oscar for best actor for his work on Darkest Hour (2017).- Director
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Venkatesh Prabhu known by his stage name Dhanush, is an Indian film actor, producer, lyricist and playback singer who has worked predominantly in Tamil cinema. In 2011, he won the National Film Award for Best Actor for the Tamil film "Aadukalam" and in the same year, he received international attention for his song "Why This Kolaveri Di", which went on to became the most viewed Indian song in YouTube.As of 2014, he has won five Filmfare Awards.
His first film was "Thulluvadho Ilamai", a 2002 coming-of-age movie directed by his father,Kasthuri Raja.Over the next ten years, Dhanush featured in 25 movies and made his Hindi debut in "Raanjhanaa" in the year 2013.- Actor
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Vijay Sethupathy, one of the most versatile actor in Indian film industry, has acted in more than 50 films, with many of them being successful. His first lead role was in Seenu Ramasamy's 'Thenmerku Paruvakatru' (2010) and his first blockbuster 'Pizza' (2012). Starting his acting career as a background actor, has become a popular actor by being unconventional - acting as protagonist, antagonist and character roles, and yet finding a way to establish himself and becoming a star who commands his own space in the Indian film industry.
With more than 16 years of experience, he has become the most sought after actor in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and other Indian language films. He has also acted in one Web Series and 12 short films.- Producer
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Matthew Paige Damon was born on October 8, 1970, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Kent Damon, a stockbroker, realtor and tax preparer, and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, an early childhood education professor at Lesley University. Matt has an older brother, Kyle, a sculptor. His father was of English and Scottish descent, and his mother is of Finnish and Swedish ancestry. The family lived in Newton until his parents divorced in 1973, when Damon and his brother moved with his mother to Cambridge. He grew up in a stable community, and was raised near actor Ben Affleck.
Damon attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and he performed in a number of theater productions during his time there. He attended Harvard University as an English major. While in Harvard, he kept on skipping classes to pursue acting projects, which included the TNT original film, Rising Son (1990), and prep-school drama, School Ties (1992). It was until his film, Geronimo: An American Legend (1993), was expected to be a big success that he decided to drop out of university completely. Arriving in Hollywood, Matt managed to get his first break with a part in the romantic comedy, Mystic Pizza (1988). However, the film did not do too well and his film career failed to take off. Not letting failure discourage him from acting, he went for another audition, and managed to get a starring role in School Ties (1992). Up next for Matt was a role as a soldier who had problems with drug-addiction in the movie, Courage Under Fire (1996). Matt had, in fact, lost forty pounds for his role which resulted in health problems.
The following year, he garnered accolades for Good Will Hunting (1997), a screenplay he had originally written for an English class at Harvard University. Good Will Hunting (1997) was nominated for 9 Academy Awards, one of which, Matt won for Best Original Screenplay along with Ben Affleck. In the year 1998, Matt played the title role in Steven Spielberg's film, Saving Private Ryan (1998), which was one of the most acclaimed films in that year. Matt had the opportunity of working with Tom Hanks and Vin Diesel while filming that movie. That same year, he starred as an earnest law student and reformed poker player in Rounders (1998), starring opposite Edward Norton and John Malkovich. The next year, Matt rejoined his childhood friend, Ben Affleck and fellow comedian, Chris Rock, in the comedy Dogma (1999).
Towards the end of 1999, Matt played "Tom Ripley", a working-class young man who tastes the good life and will do anything to live it. Both Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow also starred in the movie. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) earned mixed reviews from critics, but even so, Matt earned praise for his performance. Matt lent his voice to the animated movie, Titan A.E. (2000) in the year 2000, which also earned mixed reviews from the public. He also starred in two other movies, All the Pretty Horses (2000) and the golf comedy-drama, The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000), starring alongside Will Smith. In the year 2003, he signed on to star in The Informant! (2009) by Steven Soderbergh and the Farrelly Brothers' Stuck on You (2003). He also starred in Gerry (2002), a film he co-wrote with his friends, Gus Van Sant and Casey Affleck. One of Matt's most recognizable work to date is his role in the "Bourne" movie franchise. He plays an amnesiac assassin, "Jason Bourne", in The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). Another praised role is that as "Linus Caldwell" in the "Ocean's" movie franchise. He had the opportunity to star opposite George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and Don Cheadle in Ocean's Eleven (2001). The successful crime comedy-drama eventually had two other sequels, Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007). Among other highly acclaimed movies that Matt has been a part of are Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm (2005), George Clooney's Syriana (2005), Martin Scorsese's The Departed (2006) and Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd (2006).
In his personal life, Matt is now happily married to Argentine-born Luciana Barroso, whom he met in Miami, where she was working as a bartender. They married in a private civil ceremony on December 9, 2005, at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau. The couple have four daughters Alexia, Luciana's daughter from a previous relationship, as well as Isabella, Gia and Stella. Matt is a big fan of the Boston Red Sox and he tries to attend their games whenever possible. He has also formed great friendships with his Ocean's co-stars, George Clooney and Brad Pitt, whom he works on charity projects with. He and actor Ben Affleck have remained lifelong friends and collaborators.- Actor
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Amitabh Bachchan was born on October 11, 1942 in Allahabad, British India (present-day Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India) to legendary poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan & Teji Bachchan. He also has a brother named Ajitabh. He completed his education from Uttar Pradesh and moved to Bombay to find work as a film star, in vain though, as film-makers preferred someone with a fairer skin, and he was not quite fair enough. But they did use one of his other assets, his deep baritone voice, which was used for narration and background commentary. He was successful in being cast in Saat Hindustani. He got his break in Bollywood after a letter of introduction from the then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi, as he was a friend of her son, Rajiv Gandhi. This is how Bachchan made an entry in Bollywood, starting with Zanjeer, co-starred with his future wife Jaya Bhaduri, and since then there has been no looking back.
He married Jaya Bhaduri, an accomplished actress in her own right, and they had two children, Shweta and Abhishek. Shweta is married, lives a non-filmy life and has two children.
Being friends with Rajiv Gandhi, got him to decide to run for seat in the Indian National Congress (political party) from his home town but had to leave mid-term because of controversies, particularly after Rajiv and he were implicated in the now infamous "Bofors" case along with the U. K. based Hinduja Brothers.
After a four year break, he was back in the unsuccessful Mrityudaata (1997), a comeback which the actor wanted to forget. Critics written him off but his career was saved with Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (1998). But four flops in 1999 and incurring debt of over 90 crore rupees of his sinking company ABCL saw him at an all-time low. To make matters worse, after the defeat of the Congress party, Bachchan lost considerable political support, the opposition made him a target, and his credit rating deteriorated to such an extent that a leading nationalized bank, Canara Bank, sued him for outstanding loans. He did bounce back, presenting the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire called Kaun Banega Crorepati? (2000). After a series of hits with Mohabbatein (2000), Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001) and Baghban (2003) and Khakee (2004), Bachchan is showing no signs of slowing down and proving the critics wrong once again.
Amitabh and Jaya were interested in getting their son Abhishek married to Karisma Kapoor, the daughter of Babita and Randhir Kapoor, they went through a formal engagement, but later broke it off.
The former Miss World and Bollywood actress, Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek, were formally engaged on Sunday January 14, 2007, at the Bachchan residence in Juhu, Bombay, with the marriage taking place at the Bachchan residence on April 20, 2007.
On November 16, 2011, he became a Dada (paternal grandfather) when Aishwarya gave birth to a daughter in a Mumbai Hospital. He is already a Nana (maternal grandfather) to Navya and Agastye - Shweta's children.
He continues to be one of the busiest actors and singers in Bollywood as well as on TV, as can be seen from the commercials that he appears on, especially on Sahara One. Looks like there are no limits for this super-star and once the "Angry Young Man" of Bollywood.