He was scouted to sing for Raell Padamsee's theatre company. He also sang for films like Black and White and Chal Chalein. Although his acting career began when he was 14, Adarsh seriously started pursuing acting when he was cast to play one of the primary characters in a film titled "Banana", produced by
John Abraham Entertainment and directed by Sajid Ali. While in his final year of college at
Narsee Monjee College of Commerce, he worked with
Anurag Kashyap in his anthology short film "Clean Shaven" with
Radhika Apte. The next year he was cast as the lead in
Rukh alongside
Manoj Bajpayee and as one of the antagonists in
Sridevi's
Mom. To work on his craft, he took a break and went to The Drama School Mumbai in 2016. After finishing school, he worked in the Amazon production "Die Trying" and the
TVF production
Hostel Daze. He also played Prince Tarquin in the NCPA production "Lucrece" directed by Paul Goodwin in 2017. In 2018, he worked with Academy nominee
Deepa Mehta on her Netflix series
Leila. After a few months of not being able to find any acting work, he was called in for an audition of
The White Tiger. His portrayal of Balram Halwai in the Netflix film has been lauded by all as the "star of Ramin Bahrani's film", with the Evening Standard saying, "Gourav is nuanced and utterly engaging as Balram Halwai, a bright peasant who morphs from lickspittle chauffeur into something more ruthless." and Variety calling it a "small marvel". The Telegraph said Gourav "gives the definition of a breakthrough performance" The Entertainment Weekly called him "a largely unknown actor whose soulful combination of sheer will and vulnerability should, in a just world, win him the kind of accolades that helped make Slumdog's Dev Patel a star. For his performance, Gourav was nominated for the
Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead and was also nominated for the BAFTA for
Best Actor. In May 2023, he was a part of Audible's podcast series called
Desi Down Under, along with
Taaruk Raina and
Prajakta Koli. The story is set in Sydney about three 20 year olds from Mangalore who go to Australia to learn surf-lifesaving skills at Coogee Beach. Following this, Gourav starred alongside
Siddhant Chaturvedi and
Ananya Panday in the coming-of-age film
Kho Gaye Hum Kahan directed by debutant Arjun Varain Singh. Writing for
NDTV, Saibal Chatterjee reviewed "Siddhant Chaturvedi has the meatiest role in
Kho Gaye Hum Kahan but it is Adarsh Gourav who makes the biggest impact". ==Filmography==