Technically ARK is born on the 16th, but it’s already the 16th in India, so close enough!

Aditya Roy Kapur! The actor who is better than he gets credit for. And also very charming. ARK comes from a film family, but a mostly behind the scenes hardworking kind of film people. His mother was a beauty queen and item dancer who married a small producer. His father and his grandfather were both small producers. In the current generation, his oldest brother Sidharth Roy Kapur rose up in the business ranks to be very respected within the producer side of the industry. He was the hired head of the Disney/UTV studio, then moved on to open his own production house and replace Mahesh Bhatt as the head of the Producers Guild of India (the hardworking main lobbying firm for Hindi film). ARK’s younger brother is a comic actor, Kunal Roy Kapur, who briefly came close to fame in 2013-2014 with his starmaking role in Delhi Belly, and then subsided back to small comic roles. Aditya Roy Kapur is the most famous member of his 3 generations of film workers, while his older brother Siddhart is arguably the most successful, and most respected.

What’s interesting about ARK is that he got his start entirely without using his film connections. And in fact the first time he (possibly) used those connections was also the start of his biggest career mistake. He was a college kid in Bombay, actually a failing college kid, but a bit of a class clown personality and cute and well-spoken. He was hired as a VJ for a music channel and was good at riffing and charming and making jokes. From there, he got a few small film roles (none of them in movies his brother was connected to), and finally got his break from Bhatt films as the lead in Aashiqui 2. He was already 28 by the time he got Aashiqui, his first movie was 4 years earlier, a small role in the band film London Dreams (picking up on his popularity as a VJ).

Aashiqui rocketed him to a new level in the industry, both because he was so much more popular than before, and because his talent was clear. This was a handsome young man who could pull off a complicated role, and had a new fanbase. GREAT! And then, unfortunately, it went wrong. The first post-Aashiqui film was a brilliant character part as the hero’s addict best friend in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. And then the lead in a YRF rom-com, great! Daawat-E-Ishq, could be a break out role, nice pleasant low budget romance to pick up on that romantic Aashiqui fanbase. But no, it flopped, because people have no TASTE!!!

And at this point, for the first time, ARK worked with his big brother. BIG MISTAKE!!!! Fitoor was an ambitious remake of Great Expectations, produced by Disney/UTV then headed by Siddharth Roy Kapur. Was delayed like crazy, ARK ended up having over a year between releases. And then the budget was so ludicrously high, for a romance without any big “hook” to it (no big name cast, no easily promoted concept, not even spectacular songs), that there was no hope of leaving up to expectations. Poor ARK, and poor Disney/UTV, and poor Siddharth Roy Kapur. Just terrible decisions all around. Disney/UTV shut down a year later after Jagga Jasoos killed it, but it was already bleeding out from Fitoor. And ARK’s career was already bleeding out too. He got another chance from OK Jaanu, the Dharma rom-com which reunited him with his Aashiqui co-star, but that flopped. And then he was caught up in the disaster of Kalank. He rebounded with Malang and a reunion with his Aashiqui director. And then another disaster, Sadak 2. And now Ludo, in which he is as effortlessly charming and handsome as ever, but not the lead actor any more. Oh well, I think he might do better as a very very handsome character actor than he ever did as a lead.

And of course the most important part of ARK’s career, crazy cut torso!

Do you prefer him veiny?

Or bulky?

Or black and white?