Sidharth Malhotra

Malhotra made his acting debut in 2006 in the TV serial Dharti Ka Veer Yodha Prithviraj Chauhan, in which he played the role of Jaichand.[8][9] 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.[10][7][11] 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".[12] Student of the Year was a financial success,[13] grossing ₹1.09 billion (US$14 million) Worldwide.

Malhotra promoting Hasee Toh Phasee in 2014

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.[14] The film performed moderately well at the box office, with global revenues of ₹620 million (US$7.8 million).[15] In the Mohit Suri-directed romantic thriller Ek Villain, he played Guru Divekar, 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."[16] The film became a commercial success with worldwide revenues of over ₹1.7 billion (US$21 million).[17] The box office performance of the film established him as one of the most promising new actors of Hindi cinema.[18][19]

Malhotra next appeared in a 2015 remake of the 2011 American film Warrior, titled Brothers, directed by Karan Malhotra and co-starring Akshay Kumar.[20][21] The film received negative reviews and under-performed at the box office.[22] 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.[23][24] 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".[25][26]

Malhotra followed the success of Kapoor & Sons with a starring role in the romantic comedy Baar Baar Dekho alongside Katrina Kaif, playing a time-travelling mathematician. Directed by Nitya Mehra, the film was poorly received.[27] 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; although highly anticipated, it opened to a poor reception.[28] Both films were box-office bombs.[29][30]

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

In a 2017 remake of the 1969 mystery film Ittefaq, Malhotra starred opposite Sonakshi Sinha. Released in 2017, the film was positively received by critics,[31] but failed at the box office with a lifetime collection of ₹ 500 million.[32] Neeraj Pandey's Aiyaary (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.[33] 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"[34]

Malhotra's two releases of 2019 were poorly received and were deemed box office failures. He first starred in the romantic-comedy Jabariya Jodi, his second collaboration with Parineeti Chopra. The film had negative reviews and was considered a flop.[35][36] His second appearance was in Milap Milan Zaveri's action film Marjaavaan,[37] co-starring Ritesh Deshmukh and Tara Sutaria.[38][39]

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.[40] It received mixed reviews from critics.[41] 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".[42] Shershaah was the most-watched film on Prime Video in India at the time of its release.[43]

Malhotra's sole film release of 2022 was the fantasy comedy Thank God, co-starring Ajay Devgn, which failed commercially.[44] 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.[45][46] 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".[47]

Malhotra will next star in the action film Yodha,[48] and in Indian Police Force, a web series for Amazon Prime Video from director Rohit Shetty.[49]