Name Akash Khurana Role Actor | Children Akarsh Khurana Shows Kabhie Kabhie | |
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Occupation Actor, Screenwriter, Entrepreneur Education National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, XLRI - Xavier School of Management Awards Nandi Special Jury Award, Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay Movies Raat, Barfi!, Krrish, Baazigar, UNindian Similar People Robin Bhatt, Javed Siddiqui, Avtar Gill, Salim Ghouse, Mahesh Bhatt | ||
The Secret of my diversity | Dr. Akash Khurana | TEDxGLIMGurgaon
Mr Akash Khurana | Indian Actor | S G R Knowledge Foundation
Akash Khurana is an Indian actor, screenwriter, theatre artist and entrepreneur. He has a diverse and rich experience of nearly four decades in Theatre, Film, Television, Academics, and Corporate Affairs.
Contents
- The Secret of my diversity Dr Akash Khurana TEDxGLIMGurgaon
- Mr Akash Khurana Indian Actor S G R Knowledge Foundation
- Early life and background
- Career
- Filmography
- References
He is a Mechanical Engineer from NIT Rourkela with an MBA from XLRI, M Phil and Ph D from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. He started his management career as an Executive with Tata Motors and later moved on to become the CEO and MD of Nimbus Communications.
He made his first screen appearance in Shyam Benegal’s Kalyug and went on to act in nearly 60 films such as ‘Ardh Satya’, ‘Saaransh’, ‘Naam’, ‘Beta’, ‘Saudagar’, ‘Sarfarosh’, ‘Company’, and ‘Barfii’. He won the Nandi Award of Andhra Pradesh for playing the lead in the Telugu film ‘Dr. Ambedkar’.
He has also written over 20 screen plays, including 'Aashiqui’ and 'Baazigar', the latter fetching him the Filmfare Award.
He was Editor of the theatre journal OVATION, and was recently the Artistic Advisor to the NCPA Repertory Theatre. He was also part of the think tank that helped Jennifer Kapoor launch the Prithvi Theatre Festival.
He has been a core member of Arpana, Motley, and Akvarious Productions, three of India’s foremost theatre companies.
Early life and background
Khurana did his schooling from St. Francis de Sales school in Nagpur. He graduated from NIT Rourkela as a Mechanical Engineer. He then obtained Post Graduate in Business Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur. Later he obtained M. Phil and a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai where has been a visiting faculty member since 1995.
Career
Dr. Khurana is a Mechanical Engineer from NIT, Rourkela, and an MBA in Marketing from XLRI. He worked in TELCO (now Tata Motors) for eight years, and then moved on to become a management consultant in the hospitality industry. He also took up a parallel career in media and entertainment. He co-founded Nimbus Communications, the leading sports, media and broadcasting conglomerate, and held various positions in the company like HR Advisor, Chief Creative Officer, CEO and MD, and Chairman.
He has been acting, writing, and directing for the stage and screen for nearly four decades. In the early eighties, he founded and edited ‘Ovation’, Bombay’s only English language theatre journal at the time. In the theatre, he has worked extensively with Satyadev Dubey, Sunil Shanbag, and Naseeruddin Shah. His work includes directing and acting in plays by Pinter, Mamet, Mrozek, Kundera, Tendulkar, Shakespeare, Shaw, and Beckett. His recent projects include Mitch Albom’s ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ and Brian Friel’s ‘Faith Healer’. Vijay Tendulkar’s ‘A Friend’s Story’, directed by him, won 4 nominations and 1 award at the recent Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards, and is slated to be performed at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London later this year.
He made his first screen appearance in Shyam Benegal's ‘Kalyug’ and went on to play character roles in nearly 60 films such as ‘Ardh Satya’, ‘Saaransh’, ‘Naam’, ‘Beta’, ‘Saudagar’, ‘Sarfarosh’, ‘Company’, and ‘Barfii’. He won the Nandi Award of Andhra Pradesh for playing the lead in the Telugu film ‘Dr. Ambedkar’. He has also written over 20 screenplays, including ‘Aashiqui’ and 'Baazigar', the latter fetching him the Filmfare Award. He is presently directing a feature film about a journey down the Ganges.
During the nineties, he took a part-time sabbatical to complete his M.Phil. and Ph.D. in New Technology and Human Resource Management from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Dr. Khurana is the Founder and CEO of SYZYGY, a Leadership Development enterprise that is a recent initiative. He has been a student mentor and guest faculty at several B-schools, teaching subjects like Creativity and Innovation, Organizational Behaviour, Business Environment, Conflict Management and Communication. He has also conducted Workshops on Acting, Screenwriting, and Film making.
On the advisory boards of several institutes, he has been a spokesperson for the media and entertainment industry on national forums like FICCI and CII, and was a Rotarian at the Rotary Club of Bombay North Island.
He is also a musician and plays the drums and the piano.