Sidharth Malhotra

Malhotra was born in Delhi, India into a Punjabi Hindu family,[3] to Sunil, a former captain in the Merchant Navy, and Rimma Malhotra, a homemaker.[4] He was schooled at Delhi's Don Bosco School and Birla Vidya Niketan, and graduated from Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi.[5] 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.[3]

Malhotra at an event for Hasee Toh Phasee in 2014

Interested in pursuing 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.[5][6] 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."[7] Student of the Year was a financial success,[8] grossing ₹700 million (US$9.8 million) domestically.[9]

Malhotra next starred opposite Parineeti Chopra and Adah Sharma in the 2014 romantic comedy Hasee Toh Phasee, which tells the love story of a 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.[10][11] The film performed moderately well at the box office, with global revenues of ₹620 million (US$8.7 million).[12]

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 his performance as "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."[13] The film became a commercial success with domestic revenues of over ₹1 billion (US$14 million).[14] The box office performance of the film established Malhotra as one of the new generation of Bollywood actors.[15][16]

In 2015, Malhotra appeared in a remake of the 2011 American film Warrior, titled Brothers, directed by Karan Malhotra and co-starring Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez and Jackie Shroff.[17][18] The film received negative reviews and under-performed at the box office.[19]

Malhotra's next release, the Shakun Batra-directed family drama Kapoor & Sons, proved to be a critical and commercial success.[20][21] 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".[22][23]

Malhotra with co-star Jacqueline Fernandez at a promotional event for A Gentleman, 2017

In 2016, Malhotra starred in the romantic comedy Baar Baar Dekho, co-starring Katrina Kaif, as a mathematician who travels in time. The film was produced by Karan Johar under the banner of Dharma Productions and Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani under the banner of Excel Entertainment. Directed by Nitya Mehra, the film opened to mixed to negative reviews from the critics. In 2017 he starred in A Gentleman with Jacqueline Fernandez from the director duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K.. Produced by Fox Star Studios, the film was released on 25 August 2017 worldwide.[24] The movies had domestic collections of INR 420 Million[25] and INR 220 Million[26] respectively.

The 2017 remake of the 1969 mystery film Ittefaq starred Malhotra opposite Sonakshi Sinha. It was produced by Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan under the banner of Red Chillies Entertainment, directed by Abhay Chopra, distributed by BR Studios and also starred Akshay Khanna. Released on 3 November 2017, the film got "100% fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes based on 5 reviews but failed to show any remarkable performance at the Box Office with a lifetime collection of INR 500 Million.[27]

Malhotra featured in Neeraj Pandey's Aiyaary, released on 16 February 2018, along with Manoj Bajpayee and Rakul Preet Singh. Produced by Shital Bhatia under the banner of Friday Filmworks, the film opened on a low note of ₹ 30 Million and collected ₹ 183.1 Million.[28] Shrishti Negi of News 18 gave the film a rating of 1.5 stars out of 5 and said that, "Unlike Pandey’s other films, there is a sense of flatness in Aiyaary. Apart from a few scenes, the movie seems to be randomly constructed and fails to evoke any thrill."[29] Bollywood Hungama gave the film a rating of 2 stars out of 5 and said that, "On the whole, Aiyaary misses the mark and is a huge letdown on the account of its flawed script and the lengthy run time. At the box office, it will be a disappointing fare."[30]

Malhotra starred in the romantic-comedy Jabariya Jodi, his second collaboration with Parineeti Chopra. The film was released on 9 August 2019. Malhotra's Marjaavaan,[31] co-starring Tara Sutaria, Rakul Preet Singh and Riteish Deshmukh was released on 15 November 2019.[32] Sidharth Malhotra is currently working on the biographical-action film - SherShaah, which is based on the life of Kargil Martyr Captain Vikram Batra. The film is written by Sandeep Srivastava, directed by Vishnuvardhan, and produced by Karan Johar under his banner of Dharma Productions.

• 2014: Times of India's Most Desirable Men of 2013 #11[58]
• 2013: Times of India's Most Desirable Men of 2012 #12[59]
• 2013: The Times of India Hotlist Most Promising Newcomer 2012 :#3[60]
• 2013: The Times of India 50 Handsome Hunks in 100 years of Indian Cinema :#27[61]