Ranbir Kapoor (born 28 September 1982) is an Indian actor known for his work in Hindi-language films. He is one of the highest-paid actors in Hindi cinema and has been featured in Forbes India‘s Celebrity 100 list since 2012. Kapoor is the recipient of several awards, including six Filmfare Awards.

The son of actors Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh, and the grandson of actor-director Raj Kapoor, Kapoor pursued filmmaking and method acting at the School of Visual Arts and the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, respectively. He subsequently assisted Sanjay Leela Bhansali on the film Black (2005) and made his acting debut with Bhansali’s tragic romance Saawariya (2007), a critical and commercial failure. He rose to prominence with the coming-of-age film Wake Up Sid, the romantic comedy Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (both 2009), and the political drama Raajneeti (2010).

Kapoor’s performances as a troubled musician in Rockstar (2011) and a cheerful deaf-and-mute man in Barfi! (2012) earned him two consecutive Filmfare Awards for Best Actor. The romantic comedy Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013) further established him as a star. This was followed by a series of commercial failures, with Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016) and Sanju (2018) being the exceptions. The latter emerged as his highest-grossing release, and his portrayal of Sanjay Dutt in it won him another Filmfare Award. Following a hiatus, he starred in the top-grossing fantasy film Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva (2022) and in the romantic comedy Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar (2023).

In addition to his acting career, Kapoor supports charities and causes. He is also a co-owner of the Indian Super League football team Mumbai City FC. He is married to the actress Alia Bhatt, with whom he has a daughter.

Early life and background (Ranbir Kapoor Biography)

Ranbir Kapoor was born on 28 September 1982 in Bombay, Maharashtra, India to Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh, both actors of the Hindi film industry. He is the great-grandson of Prithviraj Kapoor and the grandson of actor-director Raj Kapoor. His elder sister, Riddhima (born 1980), is an interior and fashion designer. The actor Randhir Kapoor is his uncle, and his daughters, actresses Karisma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor, are his first cousins. Kapoor is of Punjabi descent, born to a Hindu father and a Sikh mother. He was educated at the Bombay Scottish School. As a student, he found little interest in academics and would rank low among his peers. However, he has stated that he performed better in sports, particularly football.

Kapoor has been vocal about how his parents’ troubled marriage affected him as a child: “Sometimes the fights would get really bad. I would be sitting on the steps, my head between my knees, till five or six in the morning, waiting for them to stop”. These experiences led to a “reservoir of emotions building up inside [him]”, which he said compelled him to develop an interest in film. In his early years, Kapoor was close to his mother but had a dysfunctional relationship with his father. After completing his tenth standard examinations, he worked as an assistant director to his father on the film Aa Ab Laut Chalen (1999), during which he developed a closer bond with him.

After completing his pre-university education at the H.R. College of Commerce and Economics, Kapoor relocated to New York City to learn filmmaking at the School of Visual Arts and subsequently pursued method acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. In film school, Kapoor directed and starred in two short films, entitled Passion to Love and India 1964. The loneliness of living alone in New York City coupled with his experience in film school, which he described as “useless”, inspired him to pursue a career in Bollywood. Upon returning to Mumbai, Kapoor was hired as an assistant director to Sanjay Leela Bhansali on the 2005 film Black. He described the experience: “I was getting beaten up, abused, doing everything from cleaning the floor to fixing the lights from 7 a.m. to 4 a.m., but I was learning every day.” He later remarked that his motive for working on Black was to get Bhansali to offer him an acting job.

Career (Ranbir Kapoor Biography)

Early work and success (2007–2010)

Following the release of Black, Bhansali cast Kapoor as the protagonist of his 2007 tragic romance Saawariya, alongside Sonam Kapoor and Rani Mukerji. The film tells the story of a tramp, played by him, who falls obsessively in love with a woman awaiting the return of her lover. In an interview with the news and entertainment portal Rediff.com, Kapoor stated that his character was written as a tribute to his grandfather’s iconic roles as a tramp. Saawariya was the first Indian film to be produced by a Hollywood studio (Sony Pictures Entertainment) and was a highly anticipated release. However, film critics were disappointed with the picture with BBC’s Jaspreet Pandohar calling it a “misfire on a massive scale”. CNN-IBN‘s Rajeev Masand considered it “contrived and fake”, but was impressed by Kapoor’s “affable charm” and wrote that “he’s got that star quality to him which is so rare to find.” At the box office, Saawariya failed to earn profits. However, at the annual Filmfare Awards ceremony, Kapoor was awarded a Best Male Debut trophy.

Prakash Jha’s big-budget ensemble political drama Raajneeti was Kapoor’s first release of 2010. The film, which starred Nana Patekar, Ajay Devgn, Arjun Rampal, Manoj Bajpayee, Katrina Kaif, and Sarah Thompson in prominent roles, was inspired by the Indian epic Mahabharata and Mario Puzo’s 1969 novel The Godfather. Kapoor’s role was of Samar Pratap (based on the characters of Arjuna and Michael Corleone), the youngest heir of an Indian political dynasty, who is reluctantly drawn to politics after the assassination of his father. Kapoor described it as his first complex role and considered it a departure from the “lover boy roles” that he had previously played. Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India reviewed: “The film finally belongs to Ranbir Kapoor who perfects the art of minimalism—and literally grows before your eyes—as the simmering volcano that cannot be held back, once it erupts.” Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times, however, was more critical of his performance which he considered “stony rather than calculating—especially jarring compared to the histrionic turns around him”. Indian trade journalists were apprehensive about the film recovering its ₹600 million (US$7.5 million) investment. The film, however, proved to be a major commercial success with worldwide earnings of over ₹1.43 billion (US$18 million). Kapoor received a third Best Actor nomination at Filmfare for the film.

Later that same year, Kapoor collaborated with Priyanka Chopra on Anand’s Anjaana Anjaani, a comedy-drama involving two strangers who vow to commit suicide on New Year’s Eve. The film was a moderate financial success but garnered little praise from the critics. Rajeev Masand noted that Kapoor “struggles with a badly-defined role” and NDTV‘s Anupama Chopra concluded: “Ranbir tries hard to salvage the film, dropping his shirt several times but even his lovingly shot chest can’t save the film.”

Critical acclaim (2011–2013)

Following an item number in the children’s film Chillar Party (2011), Kapoor took on the role of Janardhan “Jordan” Jakhar in Imtiaz Ali‘s Rockstar (2011), a drama that follows the journey of an aspiring musician from a humble background to international stardom. In preparation for the role, Kapoor lived with a Jat family in Pitam Pura and studied their mannerisms. He additionally learned to play the guitar and practiced extensively at A.R. Rahman‘s (the film’s music composer) music studio. As part of the film’s promotional activity, Kapoor performed at a live concert in Mumbai. Film critics were polarised in their view of the film, but were unanimous in their praise for Kapoor; Aniruddha Guha of Daily News and Analysis was particularly impressed with the film and thought that Kapoor’s portrayal was one of “Hindi cinema’s most accomplished performances by a lead actor”. For the role, he won both the Best Actor and Best Actor (Critics) trophies at the 57th Filmfare Awards ceremony, along with Best Actor awards at Screen and IIFA. With a gross revenue of ₹1.07 billion (US$13 million), Rockstar was one of the top-grossing Hindi films of the year.

He achieved further success in 2013 when he reunited with director Ayan Mukerji for the romantic comedy Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani co-starring Deepika Padukone, Kalki Koechlin, and Aditya Roy Kapoor. He was cast as Kabir “Bunny” Thapar, a commitment-phobic photographer, a character Kapoor found to be an extension of himself. His pairing with Padukone, after their highly publicized breakup, led to the hype surrounding the film’s release. The film emerged as one of the highest-grossing Indian films of all time with earnings of ₹2.95 billion (US$37 million), proving to be his third consecutive commercial success in three years and earning him another Best Actor nomination at Filmfare. Film critics found the film to be “riddled with clichés”, but praised both Kapoor and Padukone, with Daily News and Analysis‘ Tushar Joshi labeling their on-screen chemistry as “unsurpassable”. His second release of 2013 was the action-comedy film Besharam in which he played a petty thief, alongside Pallavi Sharda and his parents. The film met with an overwhelmingly negative reception and emerged as a failure; Sudhish Kamath of The Hindu described it as “Kapoor’s hall of shame”.

Commercial Struggles and Sanju (2014–2018)

After a year-long absence from the screen, Kapoor featured as a mysterious thief in Roy (2015), a romantic thriller which critic Sarita Tanwar described as a “boring, exhausting and pretentious” film. The series of financial failures continued with his next release, the Anurag Kashyap-directed crime drama Bombay Velvet, based on the historian Gyan Prakash’s book Mumbai Fables, which also starred Anushka Sharma and Karan Johar. Kapoor portrayed an ambitious boxer in the 1960s who is drawn towards a life of crime; he based his tapori diction on Johnny Walker’s character in Mr. & Mrs. ’55 (1955). Made on a budget of ₹1.2 billion (US$15 million), the film opened to meager box-office collections and mixed reviews from critics. Ritika Bhatia of Business Standard found Kapoor’s part to be a departure from his previous roles, writing that he “does test the waters with methodical sincerity but his portrayal lacks depth on occasion”. Bombay Velvet was eventually screened at the Locarno and Bucheon film festivals.

In 2018, Kapoor portrayed the actor Sanjay Dutt in Rajkumar Hirani‘s biopic Sanju. It deals with Dutt’s troubled relationship with his father, his drug addiction, and his arrest for illegal possession of firearms. Kapoor was keen to avoid a hagiographic narrative and did not want to mimic Dutt’s mannerisms. He interacted extensively with Dutt and took a month’s time to transform himself physically before filming each phase of the actor’s life. Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV thought that despite dramatic liberties, the film had successfully portrayed Dutt’s complexity, and wrote that Kapoor “pulls out the stops in astonishingly effective ways, subsuming his personality into that of the protagonist”. Uday Bhatia of Mint was more critical for making Dutt too sympathetic despite his misdeeds, and wrote that Kapoor’s “imitation (astonishing at times) takes over the performance”. Sanju‘s strong financial performance re-established Kapoor’s stardom. With earnings of over ₹5.79 billion (US$73 million), it emerged as one of Indian cinema’s biggest earners and Kapoor’s highest-grossing release. He won another Best Actor award at Filmfare.

Hiatus and comeback (2019–present)

Following Sanju, Kapoor’s next screen appearance was after four years in 2022, when he starred in Shamshera and Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva. He attributed this absence to the COVID-19 pandemic, the death of his father, and the lengthy production time of these two big-budgeted films. In Karan Malhotra‘s Shamshera, a period action film set in the 1800s, he played a dual role. The film received poor reviews, with Saibal Chatterjee writing that “the actor should henceforth read his scripts with a more critical eye before buying into them. He owes it to his talent”. It emerged as another box office bomb for Kapoor. He then starred opposite Alia Bhatt in Ayan Mukerji’s fantasy film Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva, the first part in a planned trilogy, which took five years to film. Made on a production and marketing budget of around ₹4 billion (US$50 million), the film is one of the most expensive Indian films. His performance and chemistry with Bhatt were not well-received by Simon Abrams of TheWrap, but Deccan Herald‘s Vivek M. V. deemed him “excellent as [a] vulnerable orphan”. It earned ₹4.31 billion (US$54 million) to rank as the highest-grossing Hindi film of 2022.

Kapoor starred alongside Shraddha Kapoor in Luv Ranjan‘s Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar (2023), which Tushar Joshi of India Today remarked was a welcome return for Kapoor into the romantic comedy genre. It emerged as a moderate commercial success. Kapoor will next star in Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s crime drama, Animal, which he has described as “way out of my comfort zone”.

Personal life (Ranbir Kapoor Biography)

Kapoor has been vocal about his personal life and has stated that his parents’ marriage taught him how complex a relationship can be. He had his first serious relationship while in the seventh grade, and suffered from depression when it ended. While filming Bachna Ae Haseeno in 2008, Kapoor began dating his co-star Deepika Padukone. The relationship attracted substantial media coverage in India and they speculated on an impending engagement. However, the couple broke up a year later. Kapoor maintained that the split was amicable, though the media widely reported that the split was due to infidelity on Kapoor’s part. Kapoor later confessed: “Yes, I have, out of immaturity, out of inexperience, out of taking advantage of certain temptations, out of callousness.” Later in 2015, Kapoor stated that they both had resolved the conflict and had moved on with their lives. Since the split, he has been reticent to publicly discuss his personal life.

Rumors of an affair with Katrina Kaif first emerged during the production of Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani in 2009. In August 2013, a set of paparazzi photographs of Kapoor and Kaif at a beach in Spain were published by Stardust. Although Kapoor initially declined to speak of the relationship, he admitted to it in 2015: “Both of us are sure about our relationship and if we don’t open up about it now, it would be showing disrespect to the relationship.” In February 2016, the media reported that they had broken up. He has also spoken about being addicted to smoking and drinking.

In 2018, he began dating Alia Bhatt, his co-star in Brahmastra (2022). He married her on 14 April 2022 in a private ceremony in their Mumbai house. In November 2022, Bhatt gave birth to their daughter, Raha Kapoor.

Off-screen work (Ranbir Kapoor Biography)

In addition to acting, Kapoor is a football enthusiast and supports charities and organizations. He is the vice-captain of the All Stars Football Club, a celebrity football club that raises money for charity. In March 2013, he played the game to raise funds for the Magic Funds Organisation, an NGO for underprivileged children. Along with the chartered accountant Bimal Parekh, Kapoor acquired ownership rights in 2014 for the Mumbai-based football team of the Indian Super League, named Mumbai City FC. Also that year, Kapoor announced his participation with the digital music company Saavn as a content and programming adviser. In 2016, he featured in the documentary series Girls with Goals, to create awareness about and raise funds for YUWA, an all-girls football team in the state of Jharkhand.

In the media (Ranbir Kapoor Biography)

Born into a family of popular actors, Kapoor faced the media spotlight from a young age; Hindustan Times published that “he was always a star kid from whom everyone had great expectations”. Despite the failure of his first film (Saawariya), IANS reported that he “rose like [a] meteor on film firmament by giving compelling performances in films like Raajneeti, Rockstar, and [..] Barfi!” Discussing the commercial viability of Kapoor, Apoorva Mehta, the COO of Dharma Productions, noted in 2013, “In a short career span of 10 films, Ranbir Kapoor has achieved a tremendous jump in the business done by his films.” Also that year, The Economic Times credited him as “the most bankable actor of his generation”. However, following the success of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, each of Kapoor’s releases under-performed at the box office. This led trade journalists to criticize his choice of films, noting that his inclination towards experimental projects negatively impacted his commercial appeal.

He has been cited as one of the most attractive Indian celebrities by the media. He was featured on The Times of India‘s listing of the ‘Most Desirable Man‘ from 2010 to 2015, ranking among the top ten each year. In 2009 People magazine listed him as the “Sexiest Man Alive” in India, and in 2013 he topped Filmfare‘s poll of the “Most Stylish Young Actor”. Also in 2013, he was one of the recipients of the “People of the Year” award by the Limca Book of Records. In 2010, he was voted the “Sexiest Asian Man” in a poll conducted by the magazine Eastern Eye. Kapoor continued to feature among the top ten of the list from 2011 to 2014. He is also a celebrity endorser for various brands and services, including Pepsi, Panasonic, Renault India, Lenovo, and the Spanish football club FC Barcelona.

Filmography (Ranbir Kapoor Biography)

Films

• All films are in Hindi unless otherwise noted.

Television (Ranbir Kapoor Biography)

Music videos (Ranbir Kapoor Biography)

Awards and nominations (Ranbir Kapoor Biography)

Asian Film Awards

BIG Star Entertainment Awards

CNN-IBN Indian of the Year (Ranbir Kapoor Biography)

Filmfare Awards (Ranbir Kapoor Biography)

Indian Film Festival Melbourne (Ranbir Kapoor Biography)

International Indian Film Academy Awards

NDV Indian of the Year (Ranbir Kapoor Biography)

Star Screen Awards

Star Guild Awards (Ranbir Kapoor Biography)

Stardust Awards (Ranbir Kapoor Biography)

Winner

• 2008 – Superstar of Tomorrow – Male for Saawariya
• 2010 – Superstar of Tomorrow – Male for Wake Up Sid & Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani
• 2009 – Star of the Year – Male for Bachna Ae Haseeno
• 2011 – Best Actor – Drama for Raajneeti
• 2011 – Star of the Year – Male for Raajneeti
• 2012 – Best Actor – Drama for Rockstar
• 2012 – Star of the Year – Male for Rockstar
• 2013 – Best Actor – Drama for Barfi!
• 2013 – Star of the Year – Male for Barfi!
• 2015 – Best Actor of the Year (Male) for Tamasha

Zee Cine Awards (Ranbir Kapoor Biography)

Winner

• 2008 – Best Male Debut for Saawariya
• 2011 – Best International Icon – Male
• 2012 – Best Actor – Male for Rockstar
• 2013 – Best Actor (Critics) for Barfi!
• 2012 – Best International Icon – Male
• 2019 – Best Actor – Male for Sanju

People’s Choice Awards

Won

• 2012 – Favorite Movie Youth Icon
• 2012 – Favorite Movie Actor – Male for Rockstar

Other awards and recognitions

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