Jugal Hansraj Biography

Jugal Hansraj is an Indian actor and director presently based in Mumbai.

Although Jugal Hansraj debuted as a child actor, he has had a career spanning more than 25 years in multiple capacities - as actor, model and his latest avatar, writer and director.

As An Actor

Hansraj started his career as a child artist in the 1983 film Masoom, which starred Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi. The film was about a 9-year-old boy whose stepmother was not willing to accept him into the family because he was born out of an extramarital relationship.
Masoom was based on Man, Woman and Child, a novel by Erich Segal. The film had a positive response and launched Hansraj's career. Later on, he continued his career as a child artist in several films like Karma and Sultanat.

Jugal also featured as a model for TV and print media as a child. One of his best known campaigns was for "Nutramul" with the catchy slogan - "Be a Nutramul Dada".

He started his adult career with Aa Gale Lag Jaa in 1994, where he was paired with Urmila Matondkar, who incidentally played his sister in his first film Masoom. His second film was Papa Kehte Hai in 1995 opposite Mayuri Kango. The film also starred Anupam Kher.
The 2000 film, Mohabbatein, which also featured Shahrukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan, was his adult breakthrough film. He then played minor roles in the highly successful 2001 multi-starrer Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, in the 2005 hit Salaam Namaste and in Madhuri Dixit's 2007 come-back film, Aaja Nachle.

As A Director
He served as a writer and a director for the 2008 computer-animated film Roadside Romeo. Produced jointly by Yash Raj Films and Walt Disney Studios, it had the voices of Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Javed Jaffrey. The film opened with an overall positive response from the critics. But this favourable response did not convert into favourable earnings for the film and the film was dubbed as a flop.