Kapoor trained for an acting career under Barry John, and became a part of Motley, a drama group led by legend Naseeruddin Shah . He began his career as Aks Deputy Director, which featured Manoj Bajpayee and in which Amitabh Bachchan played a major character role, but eventually evolved to be a movie actor.
Kapoor made his film debut as a male leader against Tabu in Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities (2005) which was directed by the painter MF Hussain. His next film was Aamir Khan's film, Rang De Basanti (2006), for which he was nominated in the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award category. The film was both a critical and commercial success, and was nominated in the Best Foreign Film category at the 2007 BAFTA Awards.
Kapoor was then signed by Yash Raj Films studio for a contract for three films. He has appeared in films such as Laaga Chunari Mein Daag (2007), Aaja Nachle (2007) and Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008). After that, Kapoor took a break for two years, and then appeared in Lamhaa (2010) of national winner Rahul Dholakia with Sanjay Dutt. The film did not work well but Kapoor received praise for his performance as a young Kashmiri politician. Critics hailed it as "One of the most powerful performances of the year". That same year, Kapoor expressed the Indian god Rama in Mahayoddha Rama, an animated film directed by Raizada Rohit Jaising Vaid. In 2011, he appeared in the starrer Shahrukh Khan Don 2, where his performance was appreciated.
In 2012, Kapoor starred in Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana, a humorous film by Sameer Sharma. A film he co-wrote. The film received positive reviews and was hailed by critics as one of the top ten films of the year. The New York Times considered it favorably and called Kapoor the Indian Matthew McConaughey. In 2014, he appeared in the quirky comedy film Kaun Kitne Paani Mein.
Kapoor has three films to release. The trilingual epic action film, Veeram, directed by national winner Jayaraj, Gauri Shinde's upcoming film and Tigmanshu Dhulia's war drama, Raagdesh, based on INA's tests, began turn for one of the most expensive Indian films; GOLD. The film, based on the first Indian hockey team to win a gold medal at the Olympics, will see him team with Akshay Kumar for the first time. It is planned to go out on Independence Day in 2018. |