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VICKY KAUSHAL born on 16 thMay 1988 in a suburban chawl in Mumbai. He is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a National Film Award and two Filmfare Awards, and has appeared in Forbes India’s Celebrity 100 list of 2019.After graduating with an engineering degree from Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology,
Vicky Kaushal began his career by assisting Anurag Kashyap in the crime drama GANGS OF WASSEYPUR (2012) and played minor roles in films. His first leading role was in the independent drama MASAAN (2015), following which he starred in Kashyap’s psychological thriller RAMAN RAGHAV 2.0 (2016). Vicky Kaushal gained wider recognition in 2018 with supporting roles in the top-grossing dramas RAAZI and SANJU, winning the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for the latter.
A starring role as a military officer in the 2019 war film URI: THE SURGICAL STRIKE established Kaushal as a leading actor and won him the National Film Award for Best Actor. He earned further acclaim for his portrayal of Udham Singh in the biopic SARDAR UDHAM (2021), winning the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor, and had commercial successes in the romantic comedy ZARA HATKE ZARA BACHKE and the biographical drama of Sam Manekshaw SAM BAHADUR (both 2023).In addition to his acting career, Vicky Kaushal endorses several brands and products, and has co-hosted and performed at award ceremonies. He is married to actress KATRINA KAIF.
EARLY LIFE AND BACKGROUND
Vicky Kaushal was born on 16 May 1988 in a suburban chawl in Mumbai to Sham Kaushal, an action director in Indian films, and Veena Kaushal, a homemaker. His younger brother, Sunny Kaushal, is also an actor. His family is Punjabi Hindu who hail originally from Hoshiarpur. Kaushal has described himself as a “regular kid who was interested in studying, playing cricket and watching movies.” His father Shyam Kaushal was keen on his son having a stable career away from show-business and thus, he graduated with an engineering degree in Electronics and Telecommunications from Mumbai’s Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology in 2009.
During an industrial visit to an IT company in his graduation year, Vicky Kaushal realised that he had no real interest in an office job and began aspiring to have a career in film, movies, dramas. He studied acting at Kishore Namit Kapoor’s academy while simultaneously participating in theatre with Manav Kaul’s Aranya group and Naseeruddin Shah’s Motley Productions; doing everything from backstage and announcements to stand-ins Kaushal would spend the next two years going for various kinds of auditions, but did not get any good opportunities. His first attempt at acting was in a theatrical movie production titled LAAL PENCIL in 2011.
Vicky Kaushal started his career in films by working as an assistant director to Anurag Kashyap in the two-part crime movie drama Gangs of Wasseypur (2012). Vicky Kaushal has described fond memories of working with Anurag Kashyap, whom he considers as his mentor. He then played minor roles in Kashyap’s productions LUV SHUV TEY CHICKEN KHURANA (2012) and BOMBAY VELVET (2015), and the short film name GEEK OUT (2013).
CAREER
EARLY WORKS IN INDEPENDENT FILMS (2015 – 2016)
Vicky Kaushal’s get his first leading role was in the independent drama MASAAN (2015), directed by Neeraj Ghaywan. Kaushal and Ghaywan were both assistants on GANGS OF WASSEYPUR, and he was cast through an audition after RAJKUMMAR RAO backed out. To play a young man from a low socio-economic class yearning for a better life, Kaushal spent time in Benaras, where the film is set, and observed the mannerisms of local men. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard segment at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it won two awards, including the FIPRESCI Prize. Masaan earned critical acclaim and The New York Times considered it to be a leading example of increased realism in Indian cinema.
Nikhil Taneja of HuffPost termed Vicky Kaushal’s performance “poignant and memorable” and Anuj Kumar of The Hindu wrote that “he effortlessly conveys both the inferiority complex and the attitude of breaking through the caste cauldron”. His performance won him the IIFA and Screen Award for Best Male Debut, and a nomination for the Asian Film Award for Best Newcomer, among the other accolades.
ZUBAAN, which Kaushal had filmed before Masaan, was screened at the 2015 Busan International Film Festival, South Korea. His role was that of a grieving man who starts stammering after the suicide of his father. He worked with a speech therapist to learn stammering patterns and spent time with some of the doctor’s patients. After completing work on the film, Kaushal found it difficult to distance from the character and began to stammer in real life.[11] His performance led Justin Chang of Variety to label him a “charismatic, naturally engaging talent“.
In Kashyap’s psychological thriller RAMAN RAGHAV 2.0 (2016), Vicky Kaushal played a chain-smoking, drug-addicted police officer in pursuit of a serial killer portrayed by NAWAZUDDIN SIDDIQUI. The troubled and unbalanced character had little in common with Vicky Kaushal’s own personality, and to convince Anurag Kashyap to cast him, he lived in isolation for five days and kept repeating lines from the script. He also severely dehydrated himself and smoked heavily, impacting his health. Vicky Kaushal chose the role because he was eager to avoid typecasting from his first two films. The film premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, in the Directors’ Fortnight section to a positive response. Writing for Rediff.com, Aseem Chhabra found Vicky Kaushal’s performance “brave” and “surprising“.
SUCCESS AND BREAKTHROUGH IN LIFE (2018 – 2020)
Vicky Kaushal achieved his breakthrough in 2018. He played the male lead of the romantic comedy LOVE PER SQUARE FOOT (2018), India’s first original film from Netflix. Shweta Ramakrishnan of First post considered the chemistry between Vicky Kaushal and his co-star Angira Dhar to be the film’s highlight. It was screened at the Beijing International Film Festival later in 2019, Vicky Kaushal next featured in Meghna Gulzar’s spy thriller movie RAAZI (2018), based on Harinder Sikka’s novel Calling SEHMAT. Set during the Indo-Pak War of 1971, the film tells the real-life story of a young Indian spy (played by ALIA BHATT) who marries a Pakistani army officer (Vicky Kaushal). He was drawn to the humanity he found in the story and worked towards conveying both vulnerability and authoritative strength in his character. Meena Iyer of Daily News and Analysis commended Kaushal for being “the correct foil” to Alia Bhatt’s character.
Vicky Kaushal‘s biggest commercial success of 2018 came with Rajkumar Hirani’s SANJU, a biopic of the troubled actor Sanjay Dutt, who was portrayed by Ranbir Kapoor in the film. Vicky Kaushal played his best friend Kamli, a fictionalised amalgamation of various real-life friends of Sanjay Dutt. In preparation, he spent time with Paresh Ghelani, who served as the primary inspiration for the role. Samrudhi Ghosh of India Today wrote that he “holds his own against Ranbir’s superlative performance, and shines in the funny as well as emotional scenes“. Both RAAZI and SANJU proved to be among the highest-grossing Hindi films of 2018, and with earnings of over ₹5.79 billion (US$73 million), the latter ranks among Indian cinema’s biggest grossers. For Sanju, Vicky Kaushal won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor (tied with Gajraj Rao for BADHAAI HO).
Vicky Kaushal’s second NETFLIX PRODUCTION of the year was the anthology film LUST STORIES. It consists of four short films dealing with female sexuality; Vicky Kaushal was seen in Karan Johar’s segment as a newly married man who fails to recognise his wife’s (played by KIARA ADVANI) sexual dissatisfaction. In his final release of the year, Kaushal reunited with Anurag Kashyap for Manmarziyaan, a love triangle set in Punjab, co-starring Taapsee Pannu and Abhishek Bachchan. Vicky Kaushal played the role of Vicky Sandhu, a local DJ whose commitment issues lead to conflict in his romantic relationship with Pannu’s character. The film premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival and met with positive critical reception. Anupama Chopra took note of how well he used silences to convey his character’s pain and desire. Shilpa Jamkhandikar of Reuters found him to be “at once petulant, childlike and suddenly cheerful, bringing a vulnerability to Vicky that saves him from being the villain of the piece.”
In 2019, Vicky Kaushal starred as a military officer in URI: THE SURGICAL STRIKE, an action film based on the 2016 Uri attack, directed by Aditya Dhar and filmed in Serbia. To prepare, he gained muscle weight and athletic body for his character, practised a ketogenic diet, and underwent five months of military training and mixed martial arts sessions. He injured his arm while filming an action sequence in it. Uday Bhatia of Mint found Vicky Kaushal to be a “fetching stoic lead” but bemoaned the lack of depth in his character. Rajeev Masand took note of the film’s jingoism but opined that Kaushal “brings both the bulked-up physicality and the sort of steely determination that the part requires“. Uri earned ₹2.4 billion (US$30 million) in India, and over ₹3.5 billion (US$44 million) worldwide, making it the tenth highest-grossing Indian film domestically. Kaushal was awarded with the National Film Award for Best Actor (shared with AYUSHMANN KHURRANA for ANDHADHUN) and received his first nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor.
A year later, Vicky Kaushal starred in the horror film BHOOT – PART ONE: THE HAUNTED SHIP (2020), as a grief-stricken shipping officer. He suffered an accident during the filming of an action sequence and fractured his cheekbone. Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV found Kaushal to be “earnest” in a film he dismissed as a “horrific misfire“.
SARDAR UDHAM AND BEYOND (2021 – PRESENT)
Vicky Kaushal’s sole release in 2021 was Shoojit Sircar’s which premiered digitally on Amazon Prime Video after multiple delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film is based on the life of Udham Singh, a freedom fighter who assassinated Michael O’Dwyer as revenge for his role in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919. In order to play the younger version of his character, who was 19 years old at the time of the massacre, Kaushal lost over 15 kilograms of weight within two months. The film received critical acclaim, particularly for Kaushal’s performance, with Chatterjee calling it his best performance to date. Subhash K. Jha of Firstpost shared the same opinion, adding “Kaushal’s Udham Singh is a performance laced with grace, tinged with bitterness, and defined by a dormant rage“. For his performance, Kaushal won the IIFA Award for Best Actor and the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor, in addition to his second nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor.
Keen to work in a light-hearted film after the “emotionally exhausting” experience of Sardar Udham, Kaushal starred as a struggling dancer accused of murder in the comic thriller GOVINDA NAAM MERA (2022). It received a streaming release on Disney+ Hotstar. Despite disliking the film, India Today’s Tushar Joshi was appreciative of Vicky Kaushal’s against-type comic performance in a masala film. The following year, Kaushal starred opposite Sara Ali Khan in the romantic comedy ZARA HATKE ZARA BACHKE (2023), about a small-town couple struggling for privacy. Scroll.in’s Nandini Ramnath opined that Kaushal “turns on the lovey-dovey charm and has a moving scene-stealing moment all to himself, which gives Zara Hatke Zara Bachke a semblance of a purpose“. It marked his first film to release theatrically since Bhoot – Part One in 2020. Against expectations, it emerged as a commercial success.
Vicky Kaushal took another part of a small-town man in the family film THE GREAT INDIAN FAMILY (2023), saying that he enjoyed the process of portraying middle-class aspirations and simplicity. Reviewers for Hindustan Times and The Quint took note of how much his performance enhanced a mediocre film. It had minuscule box-office collections. In his second collaboration with Meghna Gulzar, Kaushal portrayed India’s first field marshal, Sam Manekshaw in the biopic SAM BAHADUR. Kaushal and Gulzar were keen to make the film historically accurate without taking many creative liberties. To portray Manekshaw in his less-documented younger years, Vicky Kaushal relied on meetings with Manekshaw’s grandson. Critic Shubhra Gupta commended Kaushal for playing Mankeshaw “without becoming a caricature“. It was a modest commercial success. Kaushal had a supporting role (billed as a special appearance) in Hirani’s comedy-drama DUNKI, starring SHAH RUKH KHAN and Taapsee Pannu. A reviewer for Film Companion believed that his appearance had greatly benefitted the film.
The year 2024 will mark the release of Anand Tiwari’s romantic comedy MERE MEHBOOB MERE SANAM, starring Vicky Kaushal and Tripti Dimri. Vicky Kaushal will also star in CHAAVA, a period film about Chatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj.(Son of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj)
AWARDS
Vicky Kaushal is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi films. He has appeared in Forbes India’s Celebrity 100 list of 2019. Kaushal is the recipient of 28 accolades into his credit. He won three IIFA Awards one Best Debut Actor for MASAAN (2016), Best Supporting Actor for SANJU (2019) and Best Actor for SARDAR UDHAM (2022). He received the Best Actor at the 66th National Film Awards for URI: THE SURGICAL STRIKE. Vicky Kaushal won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for SANJU and Best Actor (Critics) for SARDAR UDHAM.
NET WORTH
According to Times Now, Vicky Kaushal’s estimated net worth is an impressive Rs 41 crore. On the other hand, Katrina Kaif’s net worth is estimated to be a staggering Rs 224 crore. The joint net worth of the celebrity couple comes to a colossal Rs 265 crore.
UPCOMING MOVIES OF VICKY KAUSHAL
1. CHAAVA a historical drama based on the life of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, the son of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Starring Vicky Kaushal, Rashmika Mandanna, directed by Laxman Utekar. Produced by Dinesh Vijan Maddock films. Releasing on 6th December 2024. According to the makers this movie will be blow the audience mind in the theatres.
2. MERE MEHBOOB MERE SANAM it is romantic comedy movie directed by Anand Tiwari. Starring by Vicky Kaushal and Tripti Dimri. Releasing in 2024.