Adil Hussain

Khandkar Mohammad Adil Hussain^[1] (pronounced [ʕaːdɪl ħuˈseːn]; born 5 October 1963) is an Indian actor who is known for his work in several Indian independent and mainstream film productions, as well as international cinema, in films such as The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Life of Pi (both 2012). He received National Film Awards (Special Jury) at the 64th National Film Awards for Hotel Salvation and Maj Rati Keteki.

Adil Hussain
Hussain at Life of Pi press meet
Born	(1963-10-05) 5 October 1963 (age 61) Goalpara, Assam, India
Alma mater	B. Borooah College National School of Drama Drama Studio London
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1986–present
Known for	Life of Pi, Jasoos Vijay

He has starred in English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam, Norwegian and French films.^[2][3]

Early life and education

Born in an Assamese Muslim family in Goalpara, Assam on 5 October 1963,^[4][5][6] where his father was the headmaster of a high secondary school, Hussain was the youngest of seven children.^[1][4][7][8] His ancestors had traditionally been appointed as private tutors, known as Khandkar, to the Mughal Emperors.^[1] In an interview he described his multiethnic background, as his maternal grandfather was Iraqi while his maternal grandmother had Assamese, English and Italian roots.^[1]

Hussain acted in school plays.^[9] He left home at age 18^[10] to study philosophy at B. Borooah College, Guwahati,^[7] he started acting in college plays and performing as a stand-up comedian.

He also mimicked popular Bollywood actors in between the performances of a local stand-up comedian group, the Bhaya Mama Group. He worked as a stand-up comedian for six years, joined a mobile theatre and also did some local cinema,^[10][11] before moving to Delhi, where he studied at National School of Drama (1990–1993).

He also studied at the Drama Studio London on a Charles Wallace India Trust Scholarship.^[12][4][13]

Career

After his return to India in 1994, Hussain joined the mobile 'Hengul Theater' in Assam, where he worked for three years, before moving to Delhi.^[7] He started his stage career in Delhi, though he continued training under Khalid Tyabji. After Tyabji he trained with Swapan Bose at Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, before starting training with Dilip Shankar in Delhi.^[7]

As an actor, he first received acclaim in Othello: A Play in Black and White (1999), which was awarded the Edinburgh Fringe First,^[12] and later Goodbye Desdemona also directed by Roysten Abel. He remained the artistic director and Trainer of the Society for Artists and Performers in Hampi from 2004 to 2007,^[11] and a visiting faculty at Royal Conservatory of Performing Arts, The Hague.^[14][15] He is also a visiting faculty at his alma mater, the National School of Drama.^[11][13]

In 2004, he made his Bengali film debut along with Soha Ali Khan in the period drama Iti Srikanta, where he played the lead role.^[16]

On television, he appeared in the lead role, in the detective series Jasoos Vijay (2002–2003), produced by BBC World Service Trust.

Though he had appeared in a few Assamese films,^[13] did a small roles in Vishal Bhardwaj's Kaminey and Sona Jain's For Real, it was his role in Abhishek Chaubey's Ishqiya (2010) that got him attention in Bollywood,^[17] though his first major role was in Saif Ali Khan-Kareena Kapoor Khan starrer Agent Vinod released in early 2012. In the same year, he appeared in Italian director Italo Spinelli's Gangor, Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and Ang Lee's Life of Pi.^[4]

He next appeared alongside Sridevi in the comedy drama English Vinglish (2012), and also received critical acclaim for his role in Lessons in Forgetting at the New Jersey Independent South Asian Cine Fest.^[18] After these he acted in Aditya Bhattacharya's Bombay Most Wanted and Partho Sen-Gupta's Sunrise.^[11]

His next role as Inspector K. N. Singh was in the Ranveer Singh-Sonakshi Sinha Lootera under Vikramaditya Motwane's direction. This followed with Amit Vats' comedy Boyss Toh Boyss Hain, the story of four young men with similar problems in life, who eventually find their way to true love.^[19]

Hussain opened 2014 with the Assamese film Raag: The Rhythm of Love playing Iqbal, which marked his first Assamese film in a lead role. Sringkhal and Rodor Sithi were his other Assamese releases in the year. He was also seen in Hindi films like Kaanchi: The Unbreakable as a CBI officer, The Xposé as Rajan starring Himesh Reshammiya in the lead, and Tigers as Bilal starring Emraan Hashmi. Tigers, based on a real-life story about a salesman, was screened at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. His first lead role in a Hindi film came with the drama Zed Plus as Aslam Puncturewala.^[20]

Hussain had his maximum number of film appearances in 2015 as he had releases in English, Hindi, Bengali and his first Tamil and Marathi movies. His Hindi movies include Main Aur Charles as Amod Kant,^[1] Jai Ho Democracy as Major Baruah, and Angry Indian Goddesses as a police superintendent. He debuted in Tamil cinema with Yatchan portraying the significant role of Selvam/Vetri, He also worked in his first Marathi movie Sunrise as Joshi. His Bengali film of the year was Arindam Sil's mystery thriller Har Har Byomkesh as Zamindar Deepnarayan Singh.

His 2016 projects include the drama film Parched directed by Leena Yadav, which premiered at the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. It is about four women who lead a tightly controlled-by-traditions life in a village in Rajasthan. His other project in the year is the action thriller Force 2 directed by Abhinay Deo featuring John Abraham and Sonakshi Sinha in the lead. His Assamese film in 2016 is Kothanodi. Adil Hussain's 2017 releases include Commando 2: The Black Money Trail, Love Sonia, Mantra, Mukti Bhawan, Dobaara: See Your Evil,^[21] Kabuliwala, and Naval Enna Jewel.

In 2018, he acted in S. Shankar's 2.0^[22] as well as in Aiyaary and Bioscopewala. In 2022, Hussain became the first-ever personality to hoist the Indian National Flag in the Metaverse at the 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' Metaverse event organised by Piro Space.^[23]

Life membership

In 2013, after having conducted a film workshop at University Film Club, Aligarh Muslim University, Hussain was granted a lifetime membership in the university's film club.^[24]

Hussain has been honoured by Sandeep Marwah with the life membership of International Film And Television Club of Asian Academy of Film & Television at Noida Film City.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

During the 1999 Edinburgh Film Festival, Hussain, cast as Othello, fell in love with Kristen Jain, who was playing Desdemona. He ended up tightly hugging her, much to her and the audience's shock, instead of "killing" her as per the script, thus forcing the curtains to be brought down immediately. They eventually got married eight years later, in 2007.^[25]

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Language	Notes
1986	Xongkolpo	Pulak	Assamese	Film was based on "Assam Movement(1979-85)"
1987	Sutrapaat		Assamese	Scenario of "Assam Movement" was shown in the film
1988	Pita Putra		Assamese	2nd film directed by Munin Barua
1989	Bhai Bhai	dancing in the song "uduli muduli gao milijuli"	Assamese	directed by Biju Phukan
2002-2003	Jasoos Vijay	Vijay	Hindi	TV series, Season 1 and 2
2003	In Othello	Adil/Othello	English
2004	Iti Srikanta	Srikanta	Bengali
2009	Kaminey	Flight Purser	Hindi
	For Real	Ravi Shukla	English
2010	Ishqiya	Vidyadhar Verma/Shyam Prasad Kulshreshtha	Hindi
	Gangor	Upin	Bengali
2012	Agent Vinod	Colonel	Hindi
	The Reluctant Fundamentalist	Mustafa Fazil	English
	English Vinglish	Satish Godbole	Hindi	This film was partially re-shot in Tamil-language in the same title
	Life of Pi	Santosh Patel	English
	Lessons in Forgetting	J.A. Krishnamoorthy	English
2013	Lootera	Inspector K.N. Singh	Hindi
	Boyss Toh Boyss Hain		Hindi
2014	Raag: The Rhythm of Love	Iqbal	Assamese	First Assamese film in a lead role
	Kaanchi: The Unbreakable	CBI officer	Hindi
	The Xposé	Rajan	Hindi
	Sringkhal[26]	Kalidas	Assamese
	Rodor Sithi[27]		Assamese
	Zed Plus	Aslam Puncturewala	Hindi	First Hindi film in a lead role
	Tigers / White Lies	Bilal	Hindi
2015	Main Aur Charles	Amod Kant	Hindi
	Jai Ho Democracy	Major Baruah	Hindi
	Unfreedom / Blemished Light	Devraj	English/Hindi
	Parched	Mystic lover	Hindi
	Feast of Varanasi	Arjun	English	British film
	Yatchan	Selvam/Vetri	Tamil	First Tamil film
	Ahaan		Hindi
	Nanak Shah Fakir	Rai Bullar	English
	Arunoday-Sunrise	Joshi	Marathi	First Marathi Film
	Angry Indian Goddesses[28]	Police Superintendent	Hindi
	Har Har Byomkesh	Deepnarayan Singh	Bengali
	Umrika[29]	Patel	Hindi
2016	The Violin Player[30]		Hindi
	Crash test Aglaé		Hindi	French Film
	Bombairiya		Hindi
	Force 2	HRD Minister Brijesh Verma	Hindi
	Kothanodi[31]	Devinath	Assamese
	Leena's Beauty Parlour		Assamese	Guest role
	Chakra[32]		Hindi
2017	Commando 2	Karan's Boss	Hindi
	Love Sonia	Shiva	Hindi /English
	Mantra	Man from Jharkhand	Hindi
	Hotel Salvation	Rajiv	Hindi /English
	Dobaara: See Your Evil	Alex Merchant	Hindi
	What Will People Say[33]	Mirza	Norwegian
	Maj Rati Keteki[34]	Priyendu Hazarika	Assamese
	Naval Enna Jewel	Intelligence police officer	Malayalam	First Malayalam Film
	The Illegal	Papa	English[35]
2018	At Large		English
	Maati	Jamil	Bengali
	Ahare Mon	Purnendu Pahari	Bengali
	Aiyaary	Retd. Colonel Mukesh Kapoor	Hindi
	Bioscopewala	Robi Basu	Hindi
	2.0 [36]	Minister S. Vijay Kumar	Tamil
	Nine Hours In Mumbai	Veer	Hindi[37]
	Rajma Chawal	cameo	Hindi
2019	Bombairiya	Pandya	Hindi
	Delhi Crime	Kumar Vijay	Hindi
	Kabir Singh	Dean of the college	Hindi
	Good Newwz	Dr. Anand Joshi	Hindi
	Nirvana Inn		Hindi
	Raahgir - The Wayfarers	Lakhua	Hindi
	Pareeksha	Bucchi	Hindi	Movie on ZEE5
2020	Star Trek: Discovery	Aditya Sahil	English	2 episodes
	Abyakto	Rudra	Bengali
2021	Bell Bottom	Santook	Hindi
	India Sweets and Spices	Ranjit	English
	Ram		Malayalam
2022	Mukhbir - The Story of a Spy	Ramkishore Negi	Hindi	Web Series on zee5
2023	Dr. Bezbaruah 2	Dr. Bezbaruah	Assamese
	Tooth Pari: When Love Bites	Adi Deb	Hindi	Web Series on Netflix
	Sergeant	Inspector Haider Ali	Hindi	on JioCinema
	Otta		Malayalam	[38]
2024	Ulajh	Dhanraj Bhatia	Hindi
	Sikaar		English, Assamese	First Indo-British film

Short films

Year	Title	Language	Notes
2003	Rasikan Re	Hindi
	Butterfly	Hindi
2010	Doctor, Nurse and Patient	Hindi
	Tequila Nights (TV movie)	Hindi
2012	Infected	English
2013	Muniya	Hindi
2014	Dwaraka	Hindi
	One Last Question	Hindi	[39]
2016	Azaad	Hindi
	Bandhi	Hindi
	Chutney	Hindi

National film awards

Year	Category	Film	Result
2017	National Film Award – Special Jury Award / Special Mention (Feature Film)	Mukti Bhawan	Won
2017	National Film Award – Special Jury Award / Special Mention (Feature Film)	Maj Rati Keteki	Won

Norwegian National Film Award for Best Actor award of Amanda Award What Will People Say

Other awards and nominations

Year	Category	Film	Result
2012	Best Actor - New Jersey Independent South Asian Cine Fest	Lessons in Forgetting	Won
2014	Best Actor-Prag Cine Awards	Raag: The Rhythm of Love	Won
2015	Best Actor In A Supporting Role-Stardust Awards	Main Aur Charles	Nominated
2018	IIFA Award for Best Actor	Mukti Bhawan	Nominated

References

1. Gupta, Priya (30 October 2015). "Adil Hussain: Charles Sobhraj like Hitler believed that what he did was correct". The Times of India. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
2. "Adil Hussain on National Award win: It's dangerous to get an award like this | bollywood". Hindustan Times. 22 April 2016. Archived from the original on 11 June 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
3. "Life of Pi – a fascinating story: movie review". EF News International. 28 November 2012. Archived from the original on 1 November 2013. Retrieved 6 October 2013.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
4. "Goalpara boy hits the big time". The Times of India. 23 March 2012. Archived from the original on 3 January 2013. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
5. Suri, Rishab (5 October 2022). "Adil Hussain recalls first meeting with Sridevi for English Vinglish: She had tears in her eyes..." Hindustan Times. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
6. Barman, Rini (1 December 2016). "Adil maange more". @businessline. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
7. "Grey Matter". India Today. 28 December 2012. Archived from the original on 18 February 2013. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
8. "Assam epitome of Hindu-Muslim unity, says CM Sonowal on new book tracing state's syncretic traditions". The Times of India. 14 December 2020. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
9. "Psychologies: 'English Should Not Diminish Respect For All Languages'". Tehelka. 2 March 2013. Archived from the original on 3 November 2013. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
10. "Steamed to perfection". The Hindu. 3 October 2012. Archived from the original on 16 March 2014. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
11. "A new thinking woman's pin-up is born". Time Out, Mumbai. 27 April 2012. Archived from the original on 11 May 2012. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
12. "Role call". The Hindu. 9 September 2010. Archived from the original on 24 September 2013. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
13. "Adil Hussain: Destiny's child". The Times of India, Crest Edition. 29 January 2011. Archived from the original on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
14. "I'm Sridevi's husband: Adil Hussain". Hindustan Times. 1 April 2012. Archived from the original on 3 November 2012. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
15. "Adil Hussain creates space in the world stage". Assam Times. 8 November 2010. Archived from the original on 4 December 2010. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
16. "Adil is back". The Times of India. 11 November 2009. Archived from the original on 3 January 2013. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
17. "I'm paid well now: Adil Hussainref". The Times of India. 16 September 2010. Archived from the original on 22 August 2013. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
18. "'English Vinglish' star Adil Hussain wins best actor award at US fest". CNN-IBN. 12 October 2012. Archived from the original on 15 October 2012. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
19. Maniar, Parag (7 July 2013). "Boyss Toh Boyss Hain - a hilarious yet thought-provoking tale". The Times of India. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
20. "Adil Hussain: Was surprised to be cast as lead in 'Zed Plus'". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 25 November 2014. Archived from the original on 21 May 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
21. Hussein, Adil (20 May 2017). "I'd Love To See A Film Made On Indian Horror Concepts: Adil Hussain". Saamri. Archived from the original on 8 October 2017. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
22. "Adil Hussain: Films like Force 2 and Commando 2 subsidise my involvement in indie cinema". Firstpost.com. 8 April 2017. Archived from the original on 11 June 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
23. "Millions Witnessed First Ever Independence Day Celebrations in Metaverse". Outlook. 17 August 2022. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
24. "Acting it right - Ongole". The Hindu. 3 March 2013. Archived from the original on 25 September 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
25. "Bollywood's anti-hero". the Telegraph. 14 June 2015. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
26. "Adil Hussain to act in Assamese film". The Times of India. Guwahati. TNN. 24 November 2012. Archived from the original on 5 December 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
27. Deka, Prantik (29 September 2013). "Rodor Sithi progressing well". The Sentinel. Archived from the original on 12 December 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
28. "Angry Indian Goddesses (2015)". IMDb.com. Archived from the original on 21 June 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
29. "Umrika (2015)". IMDb.com. Archived from the original on 17 June 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
30. "The Violin Player (2016)". IMDb.com. Archived from the original on 12 September 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
31. "Kothanodi (2015)". IMDb.com. Archived from the original on 13 February 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
32. "Zubeen Garg to film Hindi directorial 'Chakra' next year". Times Of India. 30 April 2015. Archived from the original on 2 November 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
33. "Iram Haq making a film about how she was kidnapped by her own parents". Cineuropa - the Best of European Cinema. 21 February 2017. Archived from the original on 20 October 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
34. "People will go to theatres if quality of films improve: Adil". Business Standard. Guwahati. Press Trust of India. 17 December 2015. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
35. "Looking forward to start 'The Illegal' shoot: Adil Hussain". The New Indian Express. 30 June 2017. Archived from the original on 16 July 2020. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
36. "Adil Hussain has a role in 2.0". Times of India. Archived from the original on 23 December 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
37. "Nine Hours In Mumbai Movie: Showtimes, Review, Trailer, Posters, News & Videos | eTimes". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 20 May 2018. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
38. "Otta trailer: Resul Pookutty's star-studded directorial debut promises some intense drama". Cinema Express. 20 October 2023. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
39. "One Last Question". Archived from the original on 8 May 2014. Retrieved 8 May 2014.

External links

• Adil Hussain on Instagram
• Adil Hussain at IMDb