Let’s begin the count. Mohit Marwah has Fugly , Harshvardhan Kapoor has Mirza Sahiba , Armaan Jain has Lekar Hum Deewana Dil … Wait. Wondering who these people are? These are some of the still incognito faces of Bollywood’s famous clans. While their more-famous siblings and cousins battle it out for their piece of the pie, these youngsters are waiting to grab their spot in the sunshine. Let’s see if these Bollywood cousins are up for a challenge.
Mohit Marwah
Bollywood debut:Fugly
Who: Mohit is the elder son of Sandeep Marwah and Reena Kapoor, Anil and Boney Kapoor’s sister.
Famous cousins: Sonam Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor
First seen in Strangers In The Night , a short film by Shakun Batra that was produced by Karan Johar, Mohit is now part of the buddy film Fugly directed by Kabir Sadanand. Previously, Mohit worked as an assistant director in Vikram Bhatt’s films after passing out from Lee Strasberg Acting School from the US.
Armaan Jain
Bollywood debut:Lekar Hum Deewana Dil
Who: Raj Kapoor’s daughter Reema Jain’s younger son
Famous cousins : Karisma, Kareena, Ranbir Kapoor
Armaan started his career as an assistant director, working on films like My Name Is Khan , Student Of The Year and Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu . He is making his debut as the lead in director Arif Ali’s (Imtiaz Ali’s brother) debut film Lekar Hum Deewana Dil . Incidentally, Saif Ali Khan (cousin Kareena’s husband) is co-producing the film. The title too is borrowed from a song picturised on his aunt Neetu Singh in the 1973 film Yaadon Ki Baaraat . So much for lineage!
Akhil Kapur
Bollywood debut:Desi Kattey
Who: Vinod Khanna’s nephew
Famous cousins: Karisma, Kareena, Ranbir Kapoor
So he was supposed to make his debut about three years ago in a film titled Tutak Tootak Tutiyan opposite Govinda’s daughter Narmada. Since that didn’t work out, Akhil will now make his debut in a twin-hero film (with TV actor Jay Bhanushali) titled Desi Kattey . Action and more on the cards with Suniel Shetty for company.
Barbie Handa
Bollywood debut: Zid
Who: Priyanka Chopra’s cousin
Famous cousins: Priyanka and Parineeti Chopra
Priyanka Chopra introduced her little cousin to the world via Twitter as the two had worked together on a television commercial. Her debut film in Telugu Prema Geema Jantha Nai is all set for release. After that comes Barbie’s big Bollywood debut with director Vivek Agnihotri’s film Zid , which is reportedly under production. Since she is their aunt’s (father’s sister) daughter, Barbie is getting all the affection from both Priyanka as well as Parineeti.
Johnny Baweja
Bollywood debut:Sunn Ladki
Who: Filmmaker Harry Baweja’s nephew
Famous cousin: Harman Baweja
He was a Grasim Mr India finalist and has Harman Baweja as a ‘popular’ cousin, but this member of the Baweja clan decided to take an alternate route into filmdom. Yes, he has done the TV commercials bit but to his credit is an English feature film by the name of SWEN: A Journey Where We All Meet which took to the festival circuit in 2012 and won the Golden Palms Award at The Mexico International Film Festival 2012. Reportedly, he was a co-producer of the film too. Now he is making his Hindi film debut with Ishaan Trivedi’s film Sunn Ladki that has been shot in Nainital and is in the post-production stage.
Jhanvi Kapoor
Bollywood debut: Undecided
Who: Boney and Sridevi Kapoor’s elder daughter
Famous cousin: Sonam, half-brother Arjun Kapoor
Jhanvi’s Bollywood debut is an unspoken truth in the industry and reports are that she is going to debut in a Karan Johar production. He had recently launched the very young Alia Bhatt too in Student Of The Year , so the 16-year-old Jhanvi could make her debut under his wings. But rumours are also rife that filmmakers in the South are also interested in casting Sridevi’s daughter. She has certainly a lot of choice.
Harshvardhan Kapoor
Bollywood debut:Mirza Sahiba
Who: Anil and Sunita Kapoor’s son
Famous cousin: Arjun Kapoor, sister Sonam Kapoor
Harshvardhan Kapoor was assisting Anurag Kashyap in Bombay Velvet (releasing December 2014) when Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra came by looking for his Mirza and found him to be that perfect intense lover. So even though the boy reportedly loves screenplay writing, he is making his way to the silver screen as the lead in Mirza Sahiba . Yesteryear actress Usha Kiron’s daughter Saiyami Kher makes her debut alongside as Sahiba.
