OTTplay Awards 2022: Know Your Winners–Kunal Kapoor wins Best Debut in a Series for The Empire

On the night of the recently held awards show, an overwhelmed Kunal Kapoor got on stage and thanked OTTplay Awards for his first ever 'OTT award' after being in the industry for 17 years.

Kunal kapoor at the OTTplay Awards 2022

Kunal kapoor not only made a bold yet winning fashion statement at the purple carpet of OTTplay Awards 2022, as he was seen wearing an all-neon green suit for the event, he has also taken home the Best Debut Male in a Series award for his gripping act in Disney + Hostar's The Empire.

Kunal Kapoor was presented the award by another OTT star, Kubbra Sait.

For the unversed, the inaugural OTTplay Awards and Conclave, a marquee event from the house of Hindustan Times, honoured the best talent, movies and web series across 10 Indian languages and a plethora of OTT platforms that premiered on streaming services the past year.

The event, which took place last Saturday (September 10) has opened with a conclave inviting leaders in the OTT space, celebrities, content creators, advertisers, and technology enablers to deliberate on the future of OTTs and how it will reinvent the entertainment business. This will be followed by the OTTplay Awards — India's First Pan-India OTT Award Show.

ABOUT THE WINNER

Kunal Kappor burst onto mainstream Bollywood with Tabu in Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities (2004) which was directed by painter MF Hussain, and his next film was the Aamir Khan starrer Rang De Basanti (2006) which is considered a revolutionary movie in Indian cinema.

He has also appeared in films such as Laaga Chunari Mein Daag (2007), Aaja Nachle (2007), Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008), Lamhaa (2010)

Kapoor has also lent his voice for Lord Rama in Mahayoddha Rama, an animation film made by Raizada Rohit Jaising Vaid. In 2011, he appeared in the Shahrukh Khan-starrer Don 2 and in the following year, he was seen in Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana. He was also the co-writer in the comedy film.

Kapoor was also part of the national Award-winning trilinguil film Veeram, and other prominent films in the recent past such as Raagdesh and Gold.

The Empire was his digital debut and it was the perfect start to what seems like a long innings in the OTT space.

ACCOLADES

In 2005, Kunal Kapoor was nominated for Best Newcomer for Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities at the Zee Cine Awards. Again, in 2007, he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Rang De Basanti both at the Filmfare Awards and the International Indian Film Academy Awards.

He won the Outstanding Performance of the Year for Veeram at the Asiavision Awards. He was also nominated for Best Actor in a Negative Role – Telugu for Devadas at the South Indian International Movie Awards.

LESSER KNOWN FACTS ABOUT THE ACTOR

The actor, who hails from New Delhi, began his career as an assistant director of Aks.

He is the co-founder of the online crowdfunding platform Ketto.

He is married to Amitabh Bachchan's niece Naina Bachchan.

Kunal Kapoor has endorsed popular brands such as Thums Up, Indian Terrain, Ray-Ban, Kurkure and, was part of the Save the Children charity campaign along with hollywood A-Lister Gwyneth Paltrow.

ABOUT HIS WIN AT THE OTTPLAY AWARDS 2022

While accepting the award on stage, a visibly happy Kunal said on stage, "Thank you so much for this. This is a heavy-duty trophy. I would obviously like to start off by thanking all the cool people in the entertinament industry, my wonderful director Mitakshara Kumar, the great cast of The Empire and the crew. You know, thank you so much for making this happen. You know I debuted in the movies 17 years ago and that's a long time. But I think this really is the most exciting time for me as an actor-turning-producer and a storyteller. Because, I think, there has ever been a time where we had chances to tell stories and to play characters the way we can today because of all the (OTT) platforms. And I am very grateful to the platforms and I hope this is just the beginning of a very special journey and that I get the chance to create very very memorable characters. Thank you so much (sic)."

UPCOMING PROJECTS

He was seen mentoring Indian D2C brands on their journey to global success. On Propel Accelerator Season 2 by Amazon Global Selling. He is currently basking on the glory of his The Empire success, and keeps posting pictures and videos of him working out.

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