Janhvi Kapoor

Janhvi Kapoor (born 6 March 1997) is an Indian actress who works mainly in Hindi films and has also worked in Telugu cinema. She made her debut in 2018 with the romantic drama Dhadak, which was a commercial success. She has been nominated twice for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress. In 2025 she appeared in Neeraj Ghaywan's Homebound, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

Early life and background

Kapoor was born in Mumbai to film producer Boney Kapoor and actress Sridevi. Actors Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Kapoor are her uncles, and her younger sister, Khushi, is also an actress. She went to Ecole Mondiale World School in Mumbai and, before her first film, took an acting course at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in California.

Career

Debut and lead roles (2018–2022)

Kapoor's first film was Shashank Khaitan's Dhadak (2018), a Hindi remake of the Marathi hit Sairat, in which she co-starred with Ishaan Khatter. The film earned about ₹1.1 billion worldwide and won her the Zee Cine Award for Best Female Debut. In 2020 she appeared in Zoya Akhtar's segment of the Netflix anthology Ghost Stories. That year she also played the title role in Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, a biopic of the air force pilot. To prepare, she spent time with Saxena and underwent physical training, and the role brought her first Filmfare nomination for Best Actress.

She played two roles in the horror comedy Roohi (2021) opposite Rajkummar Rao. In 2022 she starred in the streaming comedy Good Luck Jerry and in Mili, playing a young woman trapped in a freezer. Mili brought her a second Best Actress nomination at Filmfare.

New directions (2023–present)

Kapoor starred opposite Varun Dhawan in Nitesh Tiwari's Bawaal (2023), released on Amazon Prime Video. She had three releases in 2024. In Mr. & Mrs. Mahi she played a woman who takes up cricket, again opposite Rao. In Ulajh she played a young Indian Foreign Service officer, and she has said she was more involved in that film's creative process than in her earlier ones. Devara: Part 1, opposite N. T. Rama Rao Jr., was her first Telugu film and became the highest-grossing film of her career.

In 2025 she played a supporting role in Homebound, which premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. She played Sundari in the romantic comedy Param Sundari opposite Sidharth Malhotra, and reunited with Khaitan and Dhawan for Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari. In 2026 she co-starred with Ram Charan in Buchi Babu Sana's Telugu action film Peddi, which was a modest box-office success.

Selected filmography

• 2018 — Dhadak — Lead
• 2020 — Ghost Stories — Lead (Zoya Akhtar segment)
• 2020 — Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl — Gunjan Saxena
• 2021 — Roohi — Dual role
• 2022 — Good Luck Jerry — Lead
• 2022 — Mili — Woman trapped in a freezer
• 2023 — Bawaal — Lead
• 2024 — Mr. & Mrs. Mahi — Lead
• 2024 — Ulajh — Indian Foreign Service officer
• 2024 — Devara: Part 1 — Lead (Telugu)
• 2025 — Homebound — Supporting role
• 2025 — Param Sundari — Sundari
• 2026 — Peddi — Lead (Telugu)

Awards and honours

• Zee Cine Award for Best Female Debut — Dhadak
• Filmfare Award for Best Actress nominations — Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl and Mili
• Included in Rediff.com's "Best Actresses" lists in 2020 and 2022
• Named in Eastern Eye's "dynamic dozen" of the decade (2020)

Recent and upcoming work

Kapoor continues to work with Dharma Productions. Her next film for the studio is the romance Lag Jaa Gale, with Tiger Shroff and Lakshya. She will also appear in Atlee's Telugu-Tamil action film Raaka, alongside Allu Arjun and Deepika Padukone.