Aftab Shivdasani

 ( 1978 Births ) 

In 2001, Shivdasani made his comeback to acting with his second film, Vikram Bhatt’s Kasoor opposite the debutant Lisa Ray. Shivdasani played a negative role and shot to instant fame with his portrayal of Shekhar Saxena, a well-known journalist, who murders his wife. His performance in the film earned him a nomination for the Filmfare Best Villain Award and a Zee Cine Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama noticed the improvement in his acting and praised his performance. "Aftab, as the suave publishing magnate, catches you unaware with a performance that is first-rate. His characterisation is dissimilar from the one he played in his debut-making venture Mast. His work should catapult him to the league of genteel artists." His next release of that year saw him paired with Ram Gopal Varma again after Mast in Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega, in which Shivdasani starred in a supporting role opposite Saif Ali Khan, Fardeen Khan, Twinkle Khanna and Sonali Bendre. Shivdasani's performance was applauded by Taran Adarsh and considered to be better than the other two heroes. Taran Adarsh wrote "Aftab plays to the gallery and gives a good account of himself. Aftab has an edge over the other two heroes because his character is mass appealing. His scenes with Johny Lever are simply superb." However, the film failed at the box office. His last release of the year was Rajiv Rai's Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat, in which Shivdasani played Taj Bharadwaj, one of the three lead roles with the debutant Arjun Rampal and Suniel Shetty opposite Kirti Reddy. Shivdasani was praised by Taran Adarsh. "Aftab Shivdasani has an edge thanks to his lovable characterization. He is natural." Pankaj Shukla of SmasHits wrote "Aftab is impressive as usual and is fast maturing as an actor."

In 2002, Shivdasani's first two films Koi Mere Dil Se Poochhe opposite debutant Esha Deol was a failure but Kya Yehi Pyaar Hai opposite Ameesha Patel was successful at the box office. His third release of that year was Rajkumar Kohli's multi-starrer supernatural horror that was a disaster. His fourth film of 2002 was the multi-starrer action comedy Awara Paagal Deewana, that proved to be a successful movie and became the seventh highest grosser movie of that year. It was an average grosser. His final release of that year was Pyaasa.

Shivdasani had some failures in 2003 with the multi-starrer Darna Mana Hai, which was a commercial failure at the box office but it was critically successful. His role of Purab, a young college student who has the ability to stop and move people, was critically praised. His next release was Priyadarshan's comedy film Hungama opposite Akshaye Khanna and the debutant Rimi Sen, which was his biggest success of that year. His third and final release of that year was Footpath opposite Bipasha Basu, Rahul Dev and debutant Emraan Hashmi, which failed to do well at the box office.

Shivdasani's first two releases of 2004 were Suno Sasurjee opposite Ameesha Patel, and Muskaan opposite Gracy Singh. His third release of that year was Indra Kumar's comedy film , in which he starred opposite Vivek Oberoi, Ritesh Deshmukh, Amrita Rao, Genelia D'Souza, Tara Sharma, Lara Dutta and Ajay Devgn. The film became a hit. His last release of that year was opposite Anupam Kher and Shriya Saran.

In 2005, Shivdasani's films included Mr Ya Miss opposite Antara Mali and Koi Aap Sa opposite Anita Hassanandani Reddy and Dipannita Sharma. The former was a flop while the latter was average at the box office. All of Shivdasani's films, especially Ankahee, were failures in 2006. Shivdasani found failures with multi-starrer films in 2007 and 2008.

In 2021, he took part in a commercially successful Kannada movie, Kotigobba 3, as a police officer. Later that year, Shivdasani starred as Vijay Kumar, a RAW officer in , the sequel to Neeraj Pandey hit series Special OPS on Disney+ Hotstar. His performance received commercial and critical appreciation from all and was also hailed as the surprise package of the second season.

• List of Indian film actors

• Tamil Movie News : Aftab Shivdasani