Arjun Mathur

Early life and education

Mathur was born in London, England and grew up in New Delhi and Mumbai, India. His father, Rakesh Mathur, is a hotelier. He has an older brother, Gautam and a younger sister, Sonia. His mother Reynoo Mathur, died in a car accident when he was thirteen years old.

Mathur studied at St. Columbas School, New Delhi, St. Mary's School, Mumbai, The British School, New Delhi and Oaklands College, St Albans, Hertfordshire, where he completed his A-Level schooling.

He chose to not pursue a college degree and instead trained as an actor at Barry John's Institute as well as the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York. Before he started acting, he worked as an Assistant Director on Bunty Aur Babli (2005) and Rang De Basanti (2006).

Career

Arjun was discovered by Mira Nair and Farhan Akhtar simultaneously, through their respective short films, Migration and Positive for the 'Aids Jaago' project, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, 2007. This was followed by several remarkable performances in mainstream Indian films like 'Luck By Chance', 'My Name Is Khan' and 'Ankur Arora Murder Case', as well as critically acclaimed independent films like 'Barah Aana', 'Coffee Bloom', the National-Award winning 'I Am' and the English language film, '''Fireflies''', for which he received a Best Actor nomination at the New York Indian Film Festival, 2013.

In 2012, he garnered praise for the youth-centric mini-series, 'Bring On The Night', which was the first of its kind produced in India, before the streaming revolution took hold. Arjun has appeared in numerous television commercials and was a brand-ambassador for the leading Indian lifestyle brand, 'Godrej' from 2013 till 2016. He was also seen in Channel 4's British drama series, 'Indian Summers' as the volatile nationalist, 'Naresh Banerjee'. The 2018 Netflix original film, 'Brij Mohan Amar Rahe (Long Live Brij Mohan)' saw Arjun step away from his image and impress audiences and critics as an underwear salesman from Delhi, who tries to fake his own death and fails miserably.

In 2019, Arjun played the lead in Zoya Akhtar's Amazon original series, 'Made In Heaven' and received a nomination in the 'Best Performance by an Actor' category at the International Emmy Awards 2020, for his nuanced portrayal of a gay man living in urban India at a time when homosexuality was illegal. The show itself received worldwide audience and critical acclaim, eventually returning for a second season four years later.

Arjun was also seen in The Gone Game - a suspense thriller series set/conceived, shot and released during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.

Filmography

Television

References

References

1. Kumar, Anuj. (3 April 2019). "Arjun Mathur: The present actor". The Hindu.
2. (16 April 2019). "When Alia Bhatt walked up to Arjun Mathur to tell him that she's his 'big fan' {{!}} Bollywood News".
3. (9 March 2019). "Made in Heaven possibly the best Indian webseries so far".
4. "2020 International Emmy Awards nominations: Arjun Mathur, 'Four More Shots Please', 'Delhi Crime' make it to the list".
5. "Arjun Mathur: Movies, Photos, Videos, News, Biography & Birthday {{!}} eTimes". The Times of India.
6. Rattanpal, Divyani. (22 October 2019). "'My Mom Died in a Car Accident': How Actor Arjun Mathur Coped". [[The Quint]].
7. "Exclusive biography of #ArjunMathur and on his life.".
8. Priyanka Dasgupta. (23 February 2010). "If SRK, Aamir agreed to smooch on-screen...". [[The Times of India]].
9. Barve, Ameya. (13 February 2021). "Manoj Bajpayee's 'Silence... Can You Hear It?' to premiere on ZEE5 in March".