Vijay Singh Deol (born 27 January 1969), known by his stage name Bobby Deol, is an Indian actor who works in Bollywood. A member of the Deol family, he is the younger son of actor Dharmendra. He has won a Filmfare Award in 1996. After appearing as a child artist in Dharam Veer (1977), Deol had his first lead role in the blockbuster romance Barsaat (1995) that won him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut. He established himself as a lead with the top-grossing films Gupt (1997), Soldier (1998), Badal (2000), Bichhoo (2000), Ajnabee (2001), and Humraaz (2002). It was followed by a brief career downturn, during which his only rarely successful films include multi starrers like Apne (2007), Yamla Pagla Deewana (2011), Race 3 (2018) and Housefull 4 (2019). He reinforced his critical success with acclaimed performances in digital ventures Class of '83 (2020), Love Hostel (2022) and Aashram (2020–present). Early life and family Deol was born on 27 January 1969 into a Punjabi Jat family in Bombay. He is the second son of Bollywood star Dharmendra and Parkash Kaur. He is the younger brother of Sunny Deol and also has two sisters Vijayta and Ajeeta who live in California. His step-mother is Hema Malini, through whom he has two paternal half-sisters, actress Esha Deol and Ahana Deol. His cousin Abhay Deol is also an actor. Acting career 1995–2003 Deol first briefly appeared as a child actor at the age of ten in Dharam Veer (1977). Deol then made his adult debut in Bollywood alongside Twinkle Khanna in Barsaat (1995) directed by Rajkumar Santoshi. Deol plays the character of Badal, a naive but intelligent young man who moves from a small village to the big city and gets caught up with corrupt police and criminal gangs amidst falling in love. Partly shot in Scotland, Deol broke his leg in an equestrian accident while filming and had to be flown to London to recuperate and had to call off several publicity shoots which documented his debut. The film was a moderate success at the box office and garnered him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut. In 1997, Deol starred in Gupt: The Hidden Truth, a suspense thriller directed by Rajiv Rai, which is widely considered his breakthrough role. Cast alongside Manisha Koirala, Kajol, Paresh Rawal, Om Puri and Raj Babbar, Deol played the role of Sahil, a young