Often considered as The New Age Action Hero of Bollywood, Vidyut Jammwal won hearts with his debut movie
Force in 2011, winning a Filmfare Award for Best Debut Actor for his performance. The trained Kalaripayattu artist has since gone on to work in a number of action movies, where he performed his own stunts, and is mostly seen playing the role of the lead antagonist. As one of India`s fittest and most desirable man, Vidyut has made it to Times Most Desirable Men for the years 2011, 2012, and 2013 consecutively, and, additionally, he was also named PETA`s Hottest Vegetarian in 2014.
Early Life
Vidyut and his two siblings were born to an army officer and his wife Vimla Jammwal, who is a former Miss Jammu and Kashmir pageant winner. However, Vidyut lost his father at a very young age, following which she turned spiritual and spent most of her time in an ashram in Kerala. At the age of three, Vidyut began training in the martial arts for of Kalaripayattu, which he continued to train in till he turned 11. Given his dedication and training, he participated in as many as 30 competitions in different parts of the country. He then went on to study at the Army Public School, Dagshai, Himachal Pradesh. Apart from Kalaripayattu, Vidyut has trained under various art forms such as jujutsu, gymnastics, and parkour. He then went on to become a martial arts trainer and briefly started modeling before taking up acting.
Personal LifeVidyut was dating television actor
Mona Singh in roughly 2012 after having known her for many months. The two were together for two years, following which they amicably parted ways in 2014.
Movie CareerAfter a brief modeling stint, Vidyut made his acting debut in 2011 with the action thriller
Force, where he played the role of the lead antagonist Vishnu. The movie, which is the Hindi remake of the Tamil movie
Kaakha Kaakha, also starred
John Abraham and
Genelia D`souza in lead roles. His performance in the movie was very well-received, following which he went on to win the Filmfare Award for Best Debut Male. Subsequently, he was seen in the Telugu film
Shakti in the same year, which, unlike, his Bollywood debut, opened to mixed reviews from the critics. Reuniting with his Shakti co-star
Jr. NTR, Vidyut was cast in the romantic thriller
Oosaravelli in the same year.
Marking his Tamil debut, Vidyut was cast alongside
Ajith,
Parvathy Omanakuttan,
Bruna Abdullah, and
Sudhanshu Pandey in the 2012 gangster film
Billa II. Vidyut`s performance of a Russian mafia leader was praised but the movie bombed at the box office and was also negatively received by the critics. Playing the role of the lead antagonist, yet again, Vidyut was cast in the
AR Murugadoss-directed Tamil action film
Thuppakki in 2012. Cast alongside Vijay and
Kajal Aggarwal, Vidyut`s performance garnered him with immense praise, winning him various nominations, of which he won the SIIMA Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role.
Thuppakki went on to become highest-grossing Tamil movie of the year 2012.
Finally playing the protagonist, Vidyut was cast in the 2013 action film
Commando: One Man Army, where he played the role of Captain Karanvir Bohra, an Indian Army officer, where he was paired alongside
Pooja Chopra. The movie opened to mixed, mainly positive, reviews with a critic stating, "Commando - A One Man Army is a one man show where Vidyut carries the entire weight on his shoulders." His next Bollywood venture came with
Tigmanshu Dhulia`s 2013 action film
Bullett Raja, starring
Saif Ali Khan,
Jimmy Shergill, and
Sonakshi Sinha in lead roles. Although the movie opened to below par reviews and box office collections, Vidyut`s portrayal of ACP Arun Singh Munna was appreciated.
Reprising his role of Captain Karanvir Bohra in 2017, Vidyut was cast alongside
Adah Sharma in
Commando 2: The Black Money Trail, which explores the story of Karanvir attempting to eradicate the concept of black money. His other projects for 2017 include the
Milan Luthria-directed action film
Baadshaho, which also stars
Ajay Devgn,
Emraan Hashmi,
Esha Gupta, and
Ileana D`Cruz in lead roles.
His 2019 release includes Commando 3. Directed by Aditya Datt, the movie stars Vidyut Jammwal himself in prominent role. His recent OTT releases include
Yaara (2020) on Zee5,
Khuda Haafiz (2020) on Disney+Hotstar and
The Power (2021) on Zeeplex.