Vicky Kaushal (; born 16 May 1988) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. He is the recipient of several accolades, including a National Film Award and three Filmfare Awards, and has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list of 2019.
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.
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. The 2025 historical action film Chhaava, in which he portrayed Sambhaji, emerged as his highest-grossing release.
In addition to his acting career, Kaushal endorses several brands and products, and has co-hosted and performed at award ceremonies. He is married to actress Katrina Kaif, with whom he has a son.
Early life and background 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 a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology in 2009.
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.
Kaushal started his career in films by working as an assistant director to Anurag Kashyap in the two-part crime drama Gangs of Wasseypur (2012). Kaushal has described fond memories of working with Kashyap, whom he considers as his mentor. He then played minor roles in Kashyap's productions Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana (2012) and Bombay Velvet (2015), and the short film Geek Out (2013).
Career Early work in independent films (2015–2016)
Kaushal's first leading role was in the independent drama Masaan (2015), directed by Neeraj Ghaywan. Kaushal and Ghaywan were both assistants on Gangs of Wasseypur, and he was cast through an audition after Rajkummar Rao backed out. To play a young man from a low socio-economic class yearning for a better life, Kaushal spent time in Benaras, where the film is set, and observed the mannerisms of local men. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard segment at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it won two awards, including the FIPRESCI Prize. Masaan earned critical acclaim and The New York Times considered it to be a leading example of increased realism in Indian cinema. Nikhil Taneja of HuffPost termed Kaushal's performance "poignant and memorable" and Anuj Kumar of The Hindu wrote that "he effortlessly conveys both the inferiority complex and the attitude of breaking through the caste cauldron". His performance won him the IIFA and Screen Award for Best Male Debut, and a nomination for the Asian Film Award for Best Newcomer, among other accolades.
The drama Zubaan, which Kaushal had filmed before Masaan, was screened at the 2015 Busan International Film Festival. His role was that of a grieving man who starts stammering after the suicide of his father. He worked with a speech therapist to learn stammering patterns and spent time with some of the doctor's patients. After completing work on the film, Kaushal found it difficult to distance from the character and began to stammer in real life. His performance led Justin Chang of Variety to label him a "charismatic, naturally engaging talent". In Kashyap's psychological thriller Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016), Kaushal played a chain-smoking, drug-addicted police officer in pursuit of a serial killer portrayed by Nawazuddin Siddiqui. The troubled and unbalanced character had little in common with Kaushal's own personality, and to convince Kashyap to cast him, he lived in isolation for five days and kept repeating lines from the script. He also severely dehydrated himself and smoked heavily, impacting his health. Kaushal chose the role because he was eager to avoid typecasting from his first two films. The film premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, in the Directors' Fortnight section to a positive response. Writing for Rediff.com, Aseem Chhabra found Kaushal's performance "brave" and "surprising".
Breakthrough (2018–2020) 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.
Kaushal's biggest commercial success of 2018 came with Rajkumar Hirani's Sanju, a biopic of the troubled actor Sanjay Dutt, who was portrayed by Ranbir Kapoor in the film. Kaushal played his best friend Kamli, a fictionalised amalgamation of various real-life friends of Dutt. In preparation, he spent time with Paresh Ghelani, who served as the primary inspiration for the role. Samrudhi Ghosh of India Today wrote that he "holds his own against Ranbir's superlative performance, and shines in the funny as well as emotional scenes". Both Raazi and Sanju proved to be among the highest-grossing Hindi films of 2018, and with earnings of over , the latter ranks among Indian cinema's biggest grossers. For Sanju, Kaushal won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor (tied with Gajraj Rao for Badhaai Ho).
Kaushal's second Netflix production of the year was the anthology film Lust Stories. It consists of four short films dealing with female sexuality; Kaushal was seen in Karan Johar's segment as a newly married man who fails to recognise his wife's (played by Kiara Advani) sexual dissatisfaction. In his final release of the year, Kaushal reunited with Kashyap for Manmarziyaan, a love triangle set in Punjab, co-starring Taapsee Pannu and Abhishek Bachchan. Kaushal played the role of Vicky Sandhu, a local DJ whose commitment issues lead to conflict in his romantic relationship with Pannu's character. The film premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival and met with positive critical reception. Anupama Chopra took note of how well he used silences to convey his character's pain and desire. Shilpa Jamkhandikar of Reuters found him to be "at once petulant, childlike and suddenly cheerful, bringing a vulnerability to Vicky that saves him from being the villain of the piece."
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 over worldwide, making it the biggest-grossing film with Kaushal in a leading role, at that point. 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.
A year later, Kaushal starred in the horror film Bhoot – Part One: The Haunted Ship (2020), as a grief-stricken shipping officer. He suffered an accident during the filming of an action sequence and fractured his cheekbone. Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV found Kaushal to be "earnest" in a film he dismissed as a "horrific misfire".
Career progression (2021–2024)
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.
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 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 Laxman Utekar's romantic comedy Zara Hatke Zara Bachke, about a small-town couple seeking privacy in their joint-family household. Scroll.ins 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.