Sidharth Malhotra

Malhotra had his first acting role in 2009 in the television serial Dharti Ka Veer Yodha Prithviraj Chauhan, in which he played the small role of Jaichand.[8] Interested in further 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.[7][9] Eventually, in 2012, he made his acting debut with Johar's teen drama Student of the Year alongside co-debutantes 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 Nanda (Dhawan) 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."[10] Student of the Year was a financial success,[11] grossing ₹1.09 billion (US$14 million) Worldwide. [12]

Malhotra promoting Hasee Toh Phasee

Following a year-long absence from the screen, similar to that of co-stars Bhatt and Dhawan who had their second releases after him, 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.[13][14] The film performed moderately well at the box office, with global revenues of ₹620 million (US$8.1 million).[15]

Malhotra's second release of 2014 was the Mohit Suri-directed romantic thriller Ek Villain, which saw him portray Guru Divekar, a hardened criminal whose terminally-ill wife Aisha Verma (Shraddha Kapoor) is murdered by a serial killer Rakesh Mahadkar (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$22 million).[17] The box office performance of the film established him as one of the new generation of 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, Jacqueline Fernandez and Jackie Shroff.[20][21] The film received negative reviews and under-performed at the box office, but was noted for its performances, particularly Malhotra's and his chemistry with co-star Akshay Kumar.[22]

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

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 Rishi Kapoor, Ratna Pathak Shah, Rajat Kapoor, 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, as a mathematician who travels in time. The film was produced by Karan Johar under the banner of Dharma Productions and Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani under the banner of Excel Entertainment. Directed by Nitya Mehra, the film opened to mixed to negative reviews from the critics and flopped at the box office. 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 and released on 25 August 2017 worldwide; although highly anticipated, it opened to a poor reception.[27] Both the films underperformed at the box office.[28][29]

Abhay Chopra's 2017 remake of the 1969 mystery film Ittefaq starred Malhotra opposite Sonakshi Sinha. Released on 3 November 2017, the film held an approval rating of 90% from Rotten Tomatoes[30] based on 5 reviews but failed at the box office with a lifetime collection of ₹ 500 million.[31]

Neeraj Pandey's Aiyaary, released on 16 February 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, eventually emerging as a mediocre success.[32] 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"[33] Malhotra's two releases of 2019 were poorly received by critics and audiences alike and were deemed box office failures. He first starred in the romantic-comedy Jabariya Jodi, his second collaboration with Parineeti. The film was released on 9 August 2019 to negative reviews and was considered a flop.[34][35] His second appearance was in Milap Milan Zaveri's masala actioner Marjaavaan,[36] co-starring Tara Sutaria, Rakul Preet Singh and Riteish Deshmukh, which released on 15 November 2019.[37][38]

In 2021, Malhotra had a lead role in the biographical-action film Shershaah, based on the life of the Indian army officer, Param Vir Chakra (PVC) Vikram Batra. After several delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film premiered on 12 August 2021 on Amazon Prime Video.[39] It received mixed reviews from critics.[40] However, praise was directed at Malhotra's performance in particular.[41] Shershaah was the most watched Indian film on the platform in India at the time of its release.[42]

Malhotra has completed two of his upcoming films, Mission Majnu and Thank God alongside Ajay Devgn. He is currently shooting for Dharma Productions's Yodha.[43] Malhotra will make his OTT debut with Indian Police Force directed by Rohit Shetty for Amazon Prime Video.[44]