History of Vicky Kaushal in Timeline
May 1988
Kaushal was born on 16 May 1988 in a suburban chawl in Mumbai to Sham Kaushal, an action director in Indian films, and Veena Kaushal, a homemaker. His younger brother, Sunny, is also an actor. His family is Punjabi Hindu with their ancestral roots in Hoshiarpur, Punjab. Kaushal has described himself as a "regular kid who was interested in studying, playing cricket and watching movies". His father was keen on his son having a stable career away from show-business and thus, he graduated with an engineering degree in Electronics and Telecommunications from Mumbai's Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology in 2009.
May 1988
Vicky Kaushal (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}pronounced [ˈʋɪkːi ˈkɔːʃəl]; born 16 May 1988) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a National Film Award and three Filmfare Awards, and has appeared in Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list of 2019.
2011
During an industrial visit to an IT company in his graduation year, he realised that he had no real interest in an office job and began aspiring to have a career in film. He studied acting at Kishore Namit Kapoor's academy while simultaneously participating in theatre with Manav Kaul's Aranya group and Naseeruddin Shah's Motley Productions; doing everything from backstage and announcements to stand-ins. Kaushal would spend the next two years going for various kinds of auditions, but did not get any good opportunities. His first attempt at acting was in a theatrical production titled Laal Pencil in 2011.
2016
Kaushal has been cited as one of the most attractive Indian celebrities by the media. He topped The Times of India's listing of the country's most desirable men of 2018, and was ranked at No. 4 in 2019 as well as 2020. In 2018, Forbes India included him in their 30 Under 30 list as well as their list of 'Tycoons of Tomorrow'. The following year, he appeared on the magazine's Celebrity 100 list, which ranked him 72nd with an estimated annual income of ₹104.2 million (US$1.2 million). Kaushal was also India's most-searched film actor in 2019, according to Google. In 2016 and 2021, he was listed as one of the best-dressed male celebrities by the Indian edition of GQ magazine.
2017
Kaushal extended his support to a football training program for children belonging to low-income families named "Just For Kicks" in 2017. In 2019, he visited sepoys in Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh as part of NDTV's reality program Jai Jawan. For Diwali that year, he visited Tata Memorial Centre to celebrate the festival with cancer patients and distribute gifts. During the COVID-19 pandemic in India in 2020, he contributed ₹1 crore to the PM CARES Fund and Maharashtra Chief Minister's Relief Fund and collaborated with the NGO GiveIndia on a fundraiser to provide ration kits to daily wage workers. Kaushal also donated ₹2.5 lakhs to the Cine and TV Artistes Association (CINTAA) to help artists who were financially effected by the second wave of the pandemic in 2021.
2018
After graduating with an engineering degree from Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology, Kaushal began his career by assisting Anurag Kashyap in the crime drama Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) and played minor roles in films. His first leading role was in the independent drama Masaan (2015), following which he starred in Kashyap's psychological thriller Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016). Kaushal gained wider recognition in 2018 with supporting roles in the top-grossing dramas Raazi and Sanju, winning the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for the latter.
2018
Kaushal achieved his breakthrough in 2018. He played the male lead of the romantic comedy Love per Square Foot, India's first original film from Netflix. Shweta Ramakrishnan of Firstpost considered the chemistry between Kaushal and his co-star Angira Dhar to be the film's highlight. It was screened at the Beijing International Film Festival later in 2019. 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. Meena Iyer of Daily News and Analysis commended Kaushal for being "the correct foil" to Bhatt's character.
2018
Kaushal's personal life has been the subject of extensive tabloid reporting. Although he is known for his media-friendly attitude, he has been guarded about discussing his relationships. He was first linked to actress Harleen Sethi in 2018. Their break up was reported by the media in early 2019. Kaushal married actress Katrina Kaif on 9 December 2021 in a traditional Hindu ceremony at Six Senses Resort, Fort Barwara in Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan. The wedding attracted substantial media coverage in India.
2019
Following his debut, Kaushal was regarded by the media as one of the most promising newcomers in Hindi cinema. According to Firstpost, while Kaushal did not have the conventional looks by Hindi cinema standards, his "merit as a performer shone through right from his first film" and put him in a group of young actors who brought change in the concept of a typical hero. His roles and performances have since been studied by critics. Writing for Elle in 2019, Rajeev Masand pointed to "the unmistakable vulnerability in his eyes that comes from 'feeling' and 'living' his parts". While discussing his career in a 2021 article, Asjad Nazir of Eastern Eye wrote that Kaushal's "chameleon-like ability to morph himself into any character has already resulted in an impressive body of work and turned him into the go-to guy for demanding roles that add weight to a major movie." Also that year, Alaka Sahani of The Indian Express described him as "the most-dependable actor among the current crop", while Filmfare magazine hailed him as "one of the finest actors of this generation."
2019
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. He injured his arm while filming an action sequence in it. Uday Bhatia of Mint found Kaushal to be a "fetching stoic lead" but bemoaned the lack of depth in his character. 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". Uri earned ₹2.4 billion (US$29 million) in India, and over ₹3.5 billion (US$42 million) worldwide, making it the tenth highest-grossing Indian film domestically. Kaushal was awarded with the National Film Award for Best Actor (shared with Ayushmann Khurrana for Andhadhun) and received his first nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor.
2019
Kaushal is also active in charity work and supports a number of causes associated with environmental protection and women's rights. He appeared alongside other celebrities in a music video, produced by the United Nations and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to spread awareness regarding air pollution. He also lent his support to a 2018 Radio City initiative to help with environmental and infrastructure issues in Mumbai and spent a day filling potholes. Kaushal was one of the speakers at the 2018 edition of We The Women festival by journalist Barkha Dutt and UN Women for women’s empowerment where he spoke in support of the MeToo movement in India. In 2019, he participated in the fourth edition of the Nashik Marathon for gender equality and women's safety.
2020
Keen to work in a light-hearted film after the "emotionally exhausting" experience of Sardar Udham, Kaushal starred as a struggling dancer accused of murder in the comic thriller Govinda Naam Mera (2022). It received a streaming release on Disney+ Hotstar. Despite disliking the film, India Today's Tushar Joshi was appreciative of Kaushal's against-type comic performance in a masala film. The following year, Kaushal starred opposite Sara Ali Khan in the romantic comedy Zara Hatke Zara Bachke, about a small-town couple seeking privacy in their joint-family household. Scroll.in's Nandini Ramnath opined that Kaushal "turns on the lovey-dovey charm and has a moving scene-stealing moment all to himself, which gives Zara Hatke Zara Bachke a semblance of a purpose". It marked his first film to release theatrically since Bhoot – Part One in 2020. Against expectations, it emerged as a commercial success.
2021
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. The film received critical acclaim, particularly for Kaushal's performance, with Chatterjee calling it his best performance to date. 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". For his performance, Kaushal won the IIFA Award for Best Actor and the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor, in addition to his second nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor.
2023
His role as an army officer in the 2019 war film Uri: The Surgical Strike established Kaushal as a leading actor and won him the National Film Award for Best Actor. He earned further praise for his portrayal of Udham Singh in the biopic Sardar Udham (2021), winning the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor, and had commercial success in 2023 in the romantic comedy Zara Hatke Zara Bachke, the biopic Sam Bahadur and the comedy-drama Dunki. The last of these won him another Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor.