Inaamulhaq (born 14 November 1979) is an Indian actor and screenwriter[1] who has been part of several commercial and critically acclaimed Bollywood films, including Filmistaan,[2]Jolly LLB 2 and Airlift. In 2019 Inaamulhaq has bagged the Best Actor Award at the DCSAFF (Washington DC South Asian Film Festival) for outstanding performance in his film Nakkash.[3][4] and Best Actor Award at India International Film Festival of Boston (IIFFB) 2019.[5]
In Mumbai he started his career as a writer for season 2 of Karamchand, directed by Pankaj Parashar.
After working as a scriptwriter and creative consultant with Comedy Circus for two and a half years, he moved into films and wrote dialogue for Bbuddah... Hoga Terra Baap in 2011.
As an actor, he got his first film break with the critically acclaimed Firaaq in 2008. His first major role in a feature film was as the Pakistani national Aaftab, in Nitin Kakkar's National Award winner Filmistaan (2012),[9] for which he was named in the "Top 10 Stand-Out Actors of 2014" by Mid-Day,[10] and "The Most Prominent Debuts of 2014" by IBNlive.com[11] in their Year-ender 2014. He is also listed in IMDB'S Top 200 Best Indian Actors and Actresses.[12] Madhureeta Mukherjee from Times of India wrote: "Inaamulhaq piques the emotions with perfection. The camaraderie between the pure souls who understand only the language of Bollywood is heart-warming".[13] Shubha Shetty-Saha from Mid-Day praised him saying: "But it is Inaamulhaq, who steals your heart with the most natural, endearing performance".[14]
Inaamulhaq appeared in the Askhay Kumar-starrer Airlift. He plays the role of an Iraqi Major Kahalf Bin Zayd, who is the main antagonist of the evacuation that the film is based on. Airlift is one of the biggest success of the actor and his performance in Airlift received a positive review from the critics. 'Airlift was released 22 January 2016. Bollywood Hungama praised him in their review saying: "Inaamulhaq as the Amitabh Bachchan fan Iraqi Major Khalaf Bin Zayd is a delight".[15] Critic Komal Nahta from ETC Bollywood Business stated in his review: "Inaamulhaq is entertaining as the Iraqi major".[16]
His played a cameo in Jolly LLB 2 as a Kashmiri. Mentioning about Inaamulhaq's performance in Jolly LLB-2 review, Sudhir Redkar from KoiMoi.com wrote: "Inaamulhaq has a small cameo that turns out to be an interesting twist".[17] Anna MM Vetticad from FirstPost,com wrote: "Watch Inaamulhaq playing a Kashmiri pronounce "card" differently within a span of a few seconds".[18] He also appeared in Lucknow Central and Firangi and Phullu in and was praised for his performance. Sukanya Verma from Rediff.com praised Inaamulhaq’s performance in Phullu quoting "No wonder a brief cameo by Inaamulhaq, once again reiterating his appeal in showy, idiosyncratic characters, makes more sense that most of this movie".[19]
Inaamulhaq's film Nakkash was released on limited screens on 31 May 2019, in which he played the lead role. The first look poster of Nakkash was unveiled at India Pavilion of the Cannes Film Festival 2018.[20][21][22] Pallabi Dey Purkayastha wrote in her The Times of India review "The protagonist, played by Inaamulhaq, is a revelation and his chemistry with his on-screen son almost evokes a sense of resentment towards the society we live in, mainly because of the unfair treatment that they are subjected to".[23] Saibal Chatterjee from NDTV quotes "Inaamulhaq does full justice to his first-ever lead role in a Hindi film, getting into the skin of the conflicted central character with complete conviction".[24]
For his performance in Nakkash Inaamulhaq bagged the Best Actor Award at the 8th Annual DCSAFF (Washington DC South Asian Film Festival 2018) .[25] and Best Actor Award at India International Film Festival of Boston (IIFFB) 2019.[26]
He also appeared in Maharani (web series) as Bengali bureaucrat Parvez Aalam.[29] Where he got great reception from the audience and critics as well. The show is created by Subhash Kapoor and streaming on SonyLIV[30]
Inaamulhaq directed two short films – "The Search" (2005) which got nominated for the Best Film Award in competition category at Berlin Asia-Pacific Film Festival-2006 (Germany), and "Parchhaiyaan" (2004), based on an anti-War poem by renowned poet Sahir Ludhianvi.[citation needed]
Media related to Inaamulhaq at Wikimedia Commons
