Shiney Ahuja
Shiney Ahuja (born 15 May 1973) is an Indian actor in Bollywood films. He won the Filmfare Best Male Debut Award for "Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi" in 2006 and then followed with several hit films like "Gangster", "Woh Lamhe", "Life in a Metro", "Bhool Bhulaiyaa", and "Welcome Back". Early life. Ahuja was born on 15 May 1973 in New Delhi. Ahuja's father was in Indian Army. He studied at St. Xavier's School, Ranchi, Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan and attended Hansraj College, Delhi University. Later, he joined the theatre group "TAG" where he met Barry John. Shortly  thereafter, he joined John's acting school in Delhi. Career. After completing college, Shiney secured his first commercial ad for Pepsi. This instantly brought him into consideration by the top ad agencies. Flooded with offers, Ahuja worked in over 40 ad films in that year, including Cadburys and Citibank. He also featured in the music video 'Pyar ho Gaya' for the British-Asian band "Stereo Nation." In the same year, Sudhir Mishra was auditioning for a film by Pritish Nandy Communications, "Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi". Sudhir saw Shiney in the Pepsi commercial and called him to audition for Kay Kay's  character – Sidharth Tyabji. Upon Shiney's request, Mishra also auditioned him for the role of Vikram Malhotra. Shiney was selected from over 200 aspirants for the role of Vikram Malhotra and made his acting debut in the film "Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi". The film went on to win critical acclaim, and was screened at as many as 12 film festivals over 6 months. These included film festivals at Turkey, Estonia, River to River (Florence), Berlin, Edinburgh, Washington, Dallas, India (Goa), Bite The Mango festival (Bradford, UK), the Commonwealth festival (Manchester), and the Pacific Rim festival (California). The film was released commercially  in 2005 with minimal publicity but a national footprint across India. Ahuja swept away several best actor (debut) awards given for the year. Thereafter, he played the lead role in Mahesh Bhatt's "Gangster", a popular commercial movie genre and "Woh Lamhe" opposite Kangana Ranaut. Other films followed including "Life in a Metro", "Bhool Bhulaiyaa". Two of his films, "Ek Accident" with co-star Soha Ali Khan and "Har Pal" with Preity Zinta are yet to be released. He was seen in the horror film Ghost (2012), which was a flop at the box office. After three years he came  in a cameo appearance in Welcome Back (2015) In 2015, Shiney was cast in Anees Bazmee's "Welcome Back" co-starring John Abraham, Shruti Hassan, Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar, Naseeruddin Shah, Dimple Kapadia and Paresh Rawal. Legal history. In June 2009, Ahuja was arrested on charges of raping, detaining, and threatening his 19-year-old domestic servant. He was booked under Section 376 (rape), and Section 506 (threat to kill) of the Indian Penal Code. During the trial, his maid (the victim) recanted on her testimony and told the Court that she was never raped. However, the judge believed that  the maid falsely testified under pressure and, in 2011, Ahuja was sentenced to seven years of prison. This case was the inspiration for the writing of the legal drama film "Section 375". The film was written by Manish Gupta, Ahuja's friend who had interacted with all parties of the case during the time of the arrest.