Sidharth Malhotra

Early life and film debut

Malhotra was born in Delhi, into a Punjabi family, to Sunil, a former captain in the Merchant Navy, and Rimma Malhotra, a homemaker. He was schooled at Delhi's Don Bosco School and Birla Vidya Niketan [Birla Vidya Niketan,New Delhi], and later attended Shaheed Bhagat Singh College. At the age of 18, Malhotra began modelling. Although he was successful, he decided to quit after four years because he was dissatisfied with the profession.

Interested to pursue an acting career, he successfully auditioned for a film to be directed by Anubhav Sinha. However, the film was shelved, following which he worked as an assistant director to Karan Johar on the 2010 film My Name Is Khan. In 2012, Malhotra made his acting debut with Johar's Student of the Year alongside Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt. He was cast as Abhimanyu Singh, a scholarship student of limited financial means, who competes with his wealthy best friend Rohan (played by Dhawan) to win an annual school championship. Film critic Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN considered Malhotra's performance to be "earnest", adding that he had "a pleasing presence." Student of the Year was a financial success, grossing ₹700 million (US$11 million) domestically.

Malhotra was next paired opposite Parineeti Chopra and Adah Sharma for the romantic comedy Hasee Toh Phasee (2014), which tells the love story of a drug-abusing scientist and an under-confident aspiring businessman. Mohar Basu of Koimoi found his performance to be "restrained" and described his chemistry with Chopra as "lively" and "heartfelt"; Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV praised his screen presence and compared it to the early work of Amitabh Bachchan. The film performed moderately well at the box office, with global revenues of ₹620 million (US$9.7 million).

Ek Villain and beyond (2014 - present)

Malhotra's second release of 2014 was the Mohit Suri-directed romantic thriller Ek Villain. Malhotra was cast as Guru, a hardened criminal whose terminally-ill wife (played by Shraddha Kapoor) is murdered by a serial killer (played by Riteish Deshmukh). Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express reviewed: "Sidharth Malhotra is watchable even if he has a hard time doing menace — he just seems so nice and wholesome all the time, even when he is crunching bones." The film was generally perceived to be plagiarised from the Korean film I Saw the Devil, although Suri dismissed the allegations. The film eventually emerged as a major commercial success with domestic revenues of over ₹1 billion (US$16 million). The box office performance of the film established Malhotra as one of the most successful among the new generation of Bollywood actors.

In 2015, Malhotra appeared in the remake of the Hollywood film Warrior (2011), entitled Brothers, directed by Karan Malhotra and co-starring Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez and Jackie Shroff. Despite high expectations from trade analysts, the film received negative reviews and under-performed at the box office. However, his next release, the Shakun Batra-directed family drama Kapoor & Sons, proved to be a critical and commercial success. Featuring an ensemble cast including Rishi Kapoor, Ratna Pathak Shah, Rajat Kapoor, Fawad Khan, and Alia Bhatt, the film tells the story of two brothers of contrasting personalities (Malhotra and Khan) who return home to their dysfunctional family after their grandfather suffers from a cardiac arrest. A reviewer for India Today thought that Malhotra was overshadowed by Khan in the film, though Namrata Joshi of The Hindu wrote that "he holds his own with his solid presence and vulnerable glances".

In 2016, Malhotra starred as a mathematician who travels in time, thereby learning the value of family life, in the romantic comedy Baar Baar Dekho, co-starring Katrina Kaif. He next starred in A Gentleman (2017) with Jacqueline Fernandez from the director duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K.. Malhotra will star in the 2017 remake of the 1969 mystery film Ittefaq, opposite Sonakshi Sinha.

Other work

Apart from acting in films, Malhotra is an endorser of several brands and products, such as Coca-Cola, Corneto, and American Swan. He also does charity work. In 2013, Malhotra performed at an event alongside Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. He collaborated with PETA for a campaign to create awareness about dogs. In August 2016, he performed in various cities of the USA as a part of the "Dream Team 2016" tour, also featuring fellow actors Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, and Aditya Roy Kapur, as well as filmmaker Karan Johar and rapper Badshah.

Other honours