Vicky Kaushal

Kaushal with the team Masaan at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival

Kaushal's 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.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13] Masaan earned critical acclaim and The New York Times considered it to be a leading example of increased realism in Indian cinema.[14][15] Nikhil Taneja of HuffPost termed 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".[16][17] His performance won him the IIFA and Screen Awards for Best Male Debut, and a nomination for the Asian Film Award for Best Newcomer, among other accolades.[18][19][20]

Zubaan, which Kaushal had filmed before Masaan, was screened at the 2015 Busan International Film Festival.[5] His role was that of a grieving man who starts stammering after the suicide of his father.[12] 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.[12] His performance led Justin Chang of Variety to label him a "charismatic, naturally engaging talent".[21] In Kashyap's psychological thriller Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016), Kaushal played a chain-smoking, drug-addicted police officer in pursuit of a serial killer portrayed by Nawazuddin Siddiqui.[5] The troubled and unbalanced character had little in common with Kaushal's own personality, and to convince Kashyap to cast him, he lived in isolation for five days and kept repeating lines from the script.[9] He also severely dehydrated himself and smoked heavily, impacting his health.[22] Kaushal chose the role because he was eager to avoid typecasting from his first two films.[9] The film premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, in the Directors' Fortnight section to a positive response.[23] Writing for Rediff.com, Aseem Chhabra found Kaushal's performance "brave" and "surprising".[24]

Kaushal during promotions for Raazi in 2018

Kaushal achieved his breakthrough in 2018.[25] He played the male lead of the romantic comedy Love per Square Foot, India's first original film from Netflix.[26] Shweta Ramakrishnan of Firstpost considered the chemistry between Kaushal and his co-star Angira Dhar to be the film's highlight.[27] It was screened at the Beijing International Film Festival later in 2019.[28] Kaushal next featured in Meghna Gulzar's spy thriller Raazi (2018), based on Harinder Sikka's novel Calling Sehmat. Set during the Indo-Pakistani 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 (Kaushal). He was drawn to the humanity he found in the story and worked towards conveying both vulnerability and authoritative strength in his character.[29] Meena Iyer of Daily News and Analysis commended Kaushal for being "the correct foil" to Bhatt's character.[30][31]

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. Kaushal played his best friend Kamli, a fictionalised amalgamation of various real-life friends of Dutt.[32] In preparation, he spent time with Paresh Ghelani, who served as the primary inspiration for the role.[32] 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".[33] 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.[34][35] For Sanju, Kaushal won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor (tied with Gajraj Rao for Badhaai Ho).[36]

Kaushal's second Netflix production of the year was the anthology film Lust Stories. It consists of four short films dealing with female sexuality; 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.[37] In his final release of the year, Kaushal reunited with Kashyap for Manmarziyaan, a love triangle set in Punjab, co-starring Taapsee Pannu and Abhishek Bachchan.[38] 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.[39] 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."[40]

Kaushal receiving the National Film Award for Best Actor at the 66th National Film Awards

In 2019, 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, practised a ketogenic diet, and underwent five months of military training and mixed martial arts sessions.[41][42] He injured his arm while filming an action sequence in it.[43] Uday Bhatia of Mint found Kaushal to be a "fetching stoic lead" but bemoaned the lack of depth in his character.[44] 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".[45] 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.[46][47] Kaushal was awarded with the National Film Award for Best Actor (shared with Ayushmann Khurrana for Andhadhun) and received a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor.[48]

A year later, Kaushal featured in the horror film Bhoot – Part One: The Haunted Ship (2020), as a grief-stricken shipping officer.[49][50] He suffered an accident during the filming of an action sequence and fractured his cheekbone.[51] Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV found Kaushal to be "earnest" in a film he dismissed as a "horrific misfire".[52]

Kaushal's sole release in 2021 was Shoojit Sircar's Sardar Udham 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.[53] The film received critical acclaim, particularly for Kaushal's performance, with Chatterjee calling it his best performance to date.[54] 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".[55] For his performance, Kaushal won the IIFA Award for Best Actor and the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor.[56][57]

Kaushal has completed work on four upcoming projects. He will play the title role in Shashank Khaitan's comedy film Govinda Naam Mera alongside Kiara Advani and Bhumi Pednekar.[58] He will feature in Laxman Utekar's as-yet untitled next co-starring Sara Ali Khan.[59] He has also completed director Anand Tiwari's as-yet untitled film co-starring Tripti Dimri[60] and Vijay Krishna Acharya's family film The Great Indian Family opposite Manushi Chhillar.[61] Kaushal will also be playing a brief role in Rajkumar Hirani's immigration drama Dunki, co-starring Shah Rukh Khan and Taapsee Pannu.[62] In his second collaboration with Meghna Gulzar, he will star in a biopic titled Sam Bahadur on the life of Field marshal Sam Manekshaw.[63]