Ranbir Kapoor

Ranbir Kapoor (born September 28, 1982, Bombay [Mumbai], Maharashtra, India) is an Indian actor known for his work in Bollywood films. Kapoor rose to fame with romantic comedies but eventually branched out to diverse genres. Some of his most notable films include Wake Up Sid (2009), Rockstar (2011), Barfi! (2012), Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013; “This Youth Is Crazy”), Sanju (2018), and Animal (2023). He is in the fourth generation of the Kapoor film dynasty, several members of which have made significant contributions to Hindi cinema.

Early life and family

Kapoor is the youngest child of Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh, both of whom were leading Bollywood stars in the 1970s. His great-grandfather Prithviraj Kapoor is hailed as one of the most seminal figures of Bollywood. Ranbir Kapoor’s grandfather Raj Kapoor and Raj Kapoor’s brothers, Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor, were legendary actors of Hindi cinema. Rishi Kapoor’s brother and sister-in-law Randhir Kapoor and Babita and their daughters, Karisma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor, are also counted among the most prominent Bollywood stars. Ranbir Kapoor’s elder sister, Riddhima Kapoor Sahni, is a jewelry designer and entrepreneur and has dabbled in reality television. In 2022 Ranbir Kapoor married Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt, the daughter of Bollywood director Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. Kapoor and Bhatt share a daughter named Raha.

Kapoor graduated from Bombay Scottish School and H.R. College of Commerce and Economics. He later studied filmmaking at the School of Visual Arts and method acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, both in New York City.

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Debut and rise to stardom

Before beginning his career as an actor in Bollywood, Ranbir Kapoor worked as an assistant director in his father’s romantic drama Aa Ab Laut Chalein (1999; “Come, Let’s Go Back”) and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s award-winning drama Black (2005). Kapoor made his film debut as a lead in Saawariya (2007; “Beloved”). He played a singer at a bar who falls in love with a woman (played by Sonam Kapoor, in her debut role) waiting for her lover’s return. The film was a commercial failure. In 2008 he starred in his first box-office hit, Bachna Ae Haseeno (“Beware, Beauties”), a romantic comedy about a man who, antipathetic to commitment in his past romantic relationships, falls in love and undergoes a journey of repentance and self-discovery.

Kapoor established himself as one of Bollywood’s premier stars with his next two projects—Wake Up Sid (2009), a coming-of-age film that follows a warmhearted but frivolous young man who gradually finds his life’s purpose and love, and Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (2009; “A Wonderful Story About Strange Love”), a romantic drama about an endearing small-town man who selflessly attempts to reunite the woman he loves (played by Katrina Kaif) with her lover. Both films proved to be major commercial successes. That year Kapoor also appeared as an idealistic and tenacious salesman who defies all odds to set up his own business venture in the comedy drama Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year. The film was a modest hit.

Ranbir Kapoor’s next project marked a departure from the lighthearted films he had previously starred in. In 2010 he was a part of an ensemble cast in Raajneeti (“Politics”), a gritty political drama about power struggles, rivalries, and revenge. Kapoor’s next notable credit was the romantic drama Rockstar (2011), in which he played a wounded-in-love musical sensation. In 2012 Kapoor starred in the romantic comedy drama Barfi!, and his performance as a deaf and mute man who falls in love with an autistic woman (played by Priyanka Chopra Jonas) received widespread acclaim. The film was also a commercial success. Kapoor then appeared in the blockbuster romantic comedy Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013; “This Youth Is Crazy”) as a charming and spirited videographer who solely wants to travel the world but eventually learns to balance his ambition and personal life.

Later career

In 2015 Kapoor appeared in the romantic dramas Roy and Tamasha (“Performance”) and the crime drama Bombay Velvet, none of which fared well at the box office. The following year Kapoor starred as a lovelorn singer in the hit romantic drama Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016; “Dear Heart, It’s Difficult”). In 2018 he had the leading role in the biopic Sanju (2018), based on the troubled life of the Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, who struggled with drug addiction and served time in prison for illegally possessing firearms connected to serial blasts in Mumbai in 1993. The film was a commercial success, although it received a mixed response from critics.

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After Sanju, Ranbir Kapoor went on a four-year hiatus. He returned to the big screen with two releases in 2022, the action drama Shamshera and the fantasy film Brahmastra Part One: Shiva (“Weapon of Brahma”). In the latter Kapoor costarred with Bhatt, and the couple fell in love during production and married some months before the film’s release. He subsequently appeared in the romantic comedy Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar (2023; “You Are a Liar, I Am a Deceiver”). That year Kapoor also starred in the drama Animal, playing an industrialist’s son who pursues violent retribution when an attempt is made on his father’s life. As of 2025 Animal is Kapoor’s biggest hit and ranks among the highest-grossing Indian films of all time. In spite of the commercial success of the film, it received negative reviews for its laudatory treatment of brutality, misogyny, and toxic masculinity.

In November 2025 Ranbir Kapoor appeared in Dining with the Kapoors, a Netflix documentary centered on a family meal celebrating Raj Kapoor’s 100 birth anniversary (which was in 2024). His mother, Neetu Kapoor; sister, Riddhima Kapoor Sahni; and cousins Karisma Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, and Armaan Jain, were also featured. While Kareena Kapoor’s husband, Saif Ali Khan, appeared in the documentary, Alia Bhatt was absent, causing comment on social media.

Kapoor headlines the cast of the two-part mythological drama Ramayana. In the cinematic adaptation of the Indian epic Ramayana, he plays the protagonist Rama, alongside Sai Pallavi as Sita, Yash as Ravana, and Sunny Deol as Hanuman. The first part released in November 2026.