Atul Agnihotri

Early and personal life

Agnihotri was born into a Punjabi Brahmin family, the son of Rohit Agnihotri, an actor of yesteryears who quit films after a brief stint and later tried his hand at business. Agnihotri lost his father at a very young age and the responsibility of supporting his family came upon him. Agnihotri's first cousin is actress Rati Agnihotri, who lived with them in Mumbai for two years and made her entry into films during that time; essentially, this inspired Atul to join films likewise.

Agnihotri is married to producer/designer Alvira Khan Agnihotri. She is the daughter of scriptwriter Salim Khan and sister of actors Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan and Sohail Khan. They have two children - a son Ayaan and a daughter Alizeh.

Acting

Agnihotri's career stretches back to 1983 when he made a brief appearance as a child artist in Pasand Apni Apni (1983) in which his cousin Rati Agnihotri was the heroine. Inspired by her success, and by the memory of his father's brief stint as an actor, Agnihotri went through the usual struggling stage and finally landed a role as a leading actor. He made his acting debut with Mahesh Bhatt's Sir (1993), which emerged as a commercial and critical success. He went on to act in several other films throughout the 1990s and early 2000s with his most notable hits being Krantiveer (1994), Naaraz (1994), Aatish (1994), Chachi 420 (1997), Yeshwant (1997), and Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam (2002). In many of these films, he was either the second lead or one of several heroes. His career as an actor slowly petered out, mainly because he accepted several roles for reasons of money (he had a support his family single-handedly) rather than with proper thought towards career strategy.

As film director

After being restricted to supporting and second lead roles, Agnihotri abandoned acting and turned to film direction. He made his directorial debut with the 2004 film Dil Ne Jise Apna Kahaa which starred his brother-in-law Salman Khan along with Bhoomika Chawla and Preity Zinta in the lead roles. The film, which was released on 10 September 2004, fared poorly at the box office and was declared a flop.

Agnihotri persisted with direction, and began work in 2007 on the film Hello. He was both producer and director of this film, which starred his other brother-in-law Sohail Khan, along with Isha Koppikar and Sharman Joshi. The film was released on 10 October 2008 to a poor reception at the box office and proved to be a flop. After this second failure, Agnihotri abandoned film direction and confined himself to film production.

As film producer

Agnihotri's second directorial venture, Hello (2007) had been the first film produced by him. His second film as a producer was Bodyguard, starring his brother-in-law Salman Khan with Kareena Kapoor. The film was directed by Siddique, who is otherwise active in Malayalam cinema and who had directed the original Malyalam version of the same film. Released on 31 August 2011, the film proved to be a phenomenal and magnificent success; made on a budget of approximately $10 million, it grossed almost four times that figure (in rupee terms, about 250 crores). It turned out to be one of the highest-grossing film of 2011 and made it to the list of all-time Bollywood blockbusters. The film also garnered several awards and accolades; see List of accolades received by Bodyguard.

In 2014, Agnihotri produced his next film, O Teri starring relative newcomers Pulkit Samrat, Bilal Amrohi and Sarah Jane Dias. The film was directed by debutant director Umesh Bisht; thus, it gave an opening to a large number of newcomers. Released on 28 March 2014, the film failed to do well at the box office and turned out to be a flop.

As actor

Kohram

Director

Producer