Sidharth Malhotra facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sidharth Malhotra
Malhotra in 2024
Born	(1985-01-16) 16 January 1985 (age 40) Delhi, India
Alma mater	Shaheed Bhagat Singh College
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2012–present
Spouse(s)	Kiara Advani ​ (m. 2023)​
Awards	Full list

Sidharth Malhotra ([sɪˈd̪ʱːaːrt̪ʰ məlˈɦoːt̪raː]; born 16 January 1985) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. He began his career as a fashion model, but left it to pursue acting as an assistant director to Karan Johar in My Name Is Khan (2010). He had his first lead role in Johar's teen film Student of the Year (2012).

Malhotra went on to star in such commercially successful films as the romantic comedy Hasee Toh Phasee (2014), the thriller Ek Villain (2014), and the drama Kapoor & Sons (2016). From 2016 to 2018, he appeared in Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list. Following a career downturn, with critical and commercial failures such as A Gentleman (2017), Aiyaary (2018) and Jabariya Jodi (2019), he gained critical praise for starring as Vikram Batra in the war film Shershaah (2021), earning a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor. In 2024, he led the action thriller series Indian Police Force.

In addition to his acting career, he serves as the ambassador of several brands and products. Malhotra is married to actress Kiara Advani.

Early life and work

Malhotra was born in Delhi, India into a Punjabi Hindu family, to Sunil Malhotra, a former captain in the Merchant Navy, and Rimma Malhotra, a homemaker.

Malhotra was educated at Don Bosco School (Alaknanda, New Delhi), and at Naval Public School, Delhi. He then graduated from Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, Delhi. At the age of 18, he began modelling. Although he was successful, he decided to quit after four years because he was dissatisfied with the profession.

Career

Early work and breakthrough (2012–2016)

Malhotra promoting Hasee Toh Phasee in 2014

Malhotra Interested in pursuing a film career, he successfully auditioned for a film to be directed by Anubhav Sinha. However, the film was shelved, and he instead worked as an assistant director to Karan Johar on the 2010 film My Name Is Khan. In 2012, he made his film debut with Johar's teen drama Student of the Year alongside newcomers Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt. He was cast as Abhimanyu Singh, a scholarship student, who competes with his wealthy best friends to win an annual school championship. Film critic Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN considered his performance to be "earnest", adding that he had "a pleasing presence". Student of the Year was a financial success, grossing ₹1.09 billion (US$19 million) Worldwide.

Following a year-long absence from the screen, Malhotra starred opposite Parineeti Chopra in the 2014 romantic comedy Hasee Toh Phasee, which tells the love story of a scientist and an under-confident aspiring businessman. 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$11 million). The film became a commercial success with worldwide revenues of over ₹1.7 billion (US$29 million). The box office performance of the film established him as one of the most promising new actors of Hindi cinema.

Malhotra next appeared in a 2015 remake of the 2011 American film Warrior, titled Brothers, directed by Karan Malhotra and co-starring Akshay Kumar. The film received negative reviews and under-performed at the box office. Malhotra's next release, the Shakun Batra-directed family drama Kapoor & Sons, proved to be a critical and commercial success, grossing ₹ 1.53 billion worldwide. Featuring an ensemble cast including 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".

Career fluctuations (2016–2020)

Malhotra with his co-star Jacqueline Fernandez at a promotional event for their film A Gentleman IN 2017

Malhotra's next release, the Shakun Batra-directed family drama Kapoor & Sons, proved to be a critical and commercial success, grossing ₹ 1.53 billion worldwide. 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".

Malhotra followed the success of Kapoor & Sons with a starring role in the romantic comedy Baar Baar Dekho alongside 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 and flopped at the box office. Later in 2017, he starred in dual roles for the first time in the action comedy A Gentleman with Jacqueline Fernandez from the writer-director duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K., which was produced by Fox Star Studios and released on 25 August 2017 worldwide; although highly anticipated, it opened to a poor reception. Both the films underperformed at the box office.

Abhay Chopra's 2017 remake of the 1969 mystery film Ittefaq starred Malhotra opposite Sonakshi Sinha. Released on 3 November 2017, the film held an approval rating of 90% from Rotten Tomatoes based on 5 reviews but failed at the box office with a lifetime collection of ₹ 500 million.

Neeraj Pandey's Aiyaary, released on 16 February 2018, featured Malhotra along with Manoj Bajpayee and Rakul Preet Singh. The film opened on a note of ₹ 30 Million and collected ₹ 183.1 million, eventually emerging as a mediocre success. Bollywood Hungama, in a negative review 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" Malhotra's two releases of 2019 were poorly received by critics and audiences alike and were deemed box office failures. He first starred in the romantic-comedy Jabariya Jodi, his second collaboration with Parineeti. The film was released on 9 August 2019 to negative reviews and was considered a flop. His second appearance was in Milap Milan Zaveri's masala actioner Marjaavaan, co-starring Tara Sutaria, Rakul Preet Singh and Riteish Deshmukh, which released on 15 November 2019.

Shershaah and action roles (2021–present)

In 2021, Malhotra had a lead role in the biographical war film Shershaah, based on the life of the Indian army officer Vikram Batra. After several delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film premiered on Amazon Prime Video. It received mixed reviews from critics. Praise was directed at Malhotra's performance in particular, with Saibal Chatterjee writing that he "has what it takes to flesh out a real-life martyr who has left behind a larger-than-life aura". Shershaah was the most-watched film on Prime Video in India at the time of its release. The film also earned him his first nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor.

Malhotra's sole film release of 2022 was the fantasy comedy Thank God, co-starring Ajay Devgn, which failed commercially. The following year, he played an Indian spy stationed in Pakistan before the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 in the thriller Mission Majnu. Following several delays from its planned theatrical release, the film was ultimately released on Netflix. Monika Rawal Kukreja of Hindustan Times compared it unfavourably to Shershaah and stated that Malhotra was let down by the script despite being in "top form, with a charming onscreen presence". In 2024, Malhotra led the police procedural series Indian Police Force, created by Rohit Shetty for Amazon Prime Video. The Hindu's Shilajit Mitra found a "decency in Malhotra that’s refreshing for a Rohit Shetty protagonist", but bemoaned that he "strains at playing broad". He once again played a heroic army officer in the action film Yodha, terming such parts his focus as an actor. In a mixed review for the film, The Wire's Puja Awasthi termed him "the most dependable action hero among his contemporaries". Yodha failed commercially.

Malhotra will next appear in the romantic comedy Param Sundari alongside Janhvi Kapoor, and in the folk thriller VVAN: Force Of The Forrest.

Personal life

Malhotra with wife Kiara Advani at their wedding reception in Mumbai

In the late 2010s, Malhotra was rumoured to be dating actress Alia Bhatt. He confirmed the relationship in 2019, after they had broken up.

Rumours of him dating actress Kiara Advani began in 2020, but he did not publicly speak about the relationship. On 7 February 2023, they married in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan in a traditional Hindu wedding ceremony. Their wedding received widespread media attention, resulting in their official wedding pictures being the most-liked Instagram post in India till date. One of the guests was Vishal Batra, twin brother of late Captain Vikram Batra, who was martyred in the Kargil War, based on which Malhotra played his character in Shershaah.

Filmography

Films

Key

Denotes films that have not yet been released

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref
2010	My Name Is Khan	N/A	Assistant director
2012	Student of the Year	Abhimanyu Singh
2014	Hasee Toh Phasee	Nikhil Bharadwaj
	Ek Villain	Guru Divekar
2015	Brothers	Monty Fernandes
2016	Kapoor & Sons	Arjun Kapoor
	Baar Baar Dekho	Jai Varma
2017	A Gentleman	Gaurav Kapoor / Rishi Purohit	Also singer for song "Bandook Meri Laila"
	Ittefaq	Vikram Sethi
2018	Aiyaary	Major Jai Bakshi
2019	Jabariya Jodi	Abhay Singh
	Marjaavaan	Raghuvendra Nath
2021	Shershaah	Vikram Batra / Vishal Batra
2022	Thank God	Ayaan Kapoor
2023	Mission Majnu	Amandeep Ajitpal Singh / Tariq Ali
2024	Yodha	Arun Katyal
2025	Param Sundari	Param	Filming

Television

Music videos

Awards and nominations

Malhotra has received two Filmfare Awards nominations — Best Male Debut for Student of the Year and Best Actor for Shershaah.

See also

In Spanish: Sidharth Malhotra para niños

• List of Indian film actors