page_title: Sidharth Malhotra
section_title: Early life, film debut and early films (1985–2015)
hierarchical_section_title: Sidharth Malhotra / Life and career / Early life, film debut and early films (1985–2015)
caption_attribution_description: English: Sidharth Malhotra at a promotional event for Hasee Toh Phasee
context_page_description: Sidharth Malhotra is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi-language films. Malhotra began a career as a model at the age of 18. Dissatisfied with the profession, he went on to work as a trainee assistant director to Karan Johar for the 2010 film My Name Is Khan.
  He made his acting debut with a leading role in Johar's teen drama Student of the Year, for which he received a Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut nomination. Malhotra played an aspiring businessman in the comedy-drama Hasee Toh Phasee, a criminal in the action thriller Ek Villain, and an aspiring author in the family drama Kapoor & Sons. He has since starred in Baar Baar Dekho, A Gentleman, Ittefaq, Aiyaary, Jabariya Jodi, and Marjaavaan.
context_section_description: Malhotra was born in Delhi, India into a Punjabi Hindu family, to Sunil, a former captain in the Merchant Navy, and Rimma Malhotra, a homemaker. He was schooled at Delhi's Don Bosco School and Birla Vidya Niketan, and graduated from Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi. At the age of 18, Malhotra began modelling. Although he was successful, he decided to quit after four years because he was dissatisfied with the profession.
  Interested in pursuing an acting career, he successfully auditioned for a film to be directed by Anubhav Sinha. However, the film was shelved, following which he worked as an assistant director to Karan Johar on the 2010 film My Name Is Khan. In 2012, Malhotra made his acting debut with Johar's Student of the Year alongside Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt. He was cast as Abhimanyu Singh, a scholarship student of limited financial means, who competes with his wealthy best friend Rohan (played by Dhawan) to win an annual school championship. Film critic Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN considered Malhotra's performance to be "earnest", adding that he had "a pleasing presence." Student of the Year was a financial success, grossing ₹700 million (US$9.8 million) domestically.
  Malhotra next starred opposite Parineeti Chopra and Adah Sharma in the 2014 romantic comedy Hasee Toh Phasee, which tells the love story of a scientist and an under-confident aspiring businessman. Mohar Basu of Koimoi found his performance to be "restrained" and described his chemistry with Chopra as "lively" and "heartfelt"; 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$8.7 million).
  Malhotra's second release of 2014 was the Mohit Suri-directed romantic thriller Ek Villain. Malhotra was cast as Guru, 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." The film became a commercial success with domestic revenues of over ₹1 billion (US$14 million). The box office performance of the film established Malhotra as one of the new generation of Bollywood actors.
  In 2015, Malhotra appeared in a remake of the 2011 American film Warrior, titled Brothers, directed by Karan Malhotra and co-starring Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez and Jackie Shroff. The film received negative reviews and under-performed at the box office.
caption: Malhotra at an event for Hasee Toh Phasee in 2014
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