Rajat Kapoor was born on 11 February 1961 in
New Delhi, India and grew up in
Old Delhi. In 1983 he joined the theatre group Chingari in Delhi. In 1985 he moved to
Pune to attend the
Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). Kapoor started out in
Parallel Cinema, making his debut in the 1989
Kumar Shahani film
Khayal Gatha. When he had trouble finding acting jobs in the 1990s, Kapoor began writing and directing shorts. He made his full-length directorial debut with
Private Detective: Two Plus Two Plus One (1997), which had
Irrfan Khan and
Naseeruddin Shah in minor roles. He received international attention in
Mira Nair's
Monsoon Wedding in which he played an abusive uncle. Since then, he has written, directed, and appeared in many films. He played
Muhammad Ali Jinnah in a
UK television film
The Last Days of the Raj in 2007. In 2003, he wrote and directed the independent film
Raghu Romeo, which he financed by sending e-mail requests for money to his friends. Although it was not a box office success, the film won the
National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi. He then directed and starred in
Mixed Doubles, a film that deals with
swinging in contemporary
Mumbai. He also worked in television shows, including
Rishtey which was aired on
Zee TV in the episode "Milan". Tired of pitching his stories to investors, Kapoor reached out to his friend Chet Jainn, founder of the crowdfunding platform goCrowdera.com to raise initial seed fund for his next film called
RkRkay. The "RkRkay" crowdfunding campaign went on to raise over ₹35,00,000. Kapoor is a three time
National Award winner, first for his 26-minute non-feature documentary,
Tarana, then for his short,
Hypnothesis, and after that for
Raghu Romeo in Best Feature Film in Hindi section. ==Personal life==