Ayushmann Khurrana

Khurrana was born as Nishant Khurrana into a Khatri Hindu Punjabi family, on 14 September 1984 in Chandigarh to Poonam and P. Khurrana. His parents changed his name to Ayushmann when he was 3 years old. His father, P. Khurrana, an astrologer and an author on the subject of astrology, died in 2023 whereas his mother Poonam is a housewife of half-Burmese descent, and has M.A. degree in Hindi. He was a part of Guru Nanak Khalsa College. He studied at St. John's High School, Chandigarh and DAV College, Chandigarh. He majored in English literature and has a master's degree in Mass Communication from the School of Communication Studies, Panjab University. He did theatre for five years. During his college days he performed in several plays in Gaiety Theatre, Shimla. He was also the founding member of DAV College's "Aaghaaz" and "Manchtantra", which are active theatre groups in Chandigarh. He conceived and acted in street plays and won prizes in national college festivals such as Mood Indigo (IIT Bombay), OASIS (Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani) and St. Bedes Shimla. He won a Best Actor award for playing Ashwatthama in Dharamvir Bharati's Andha Yug. While Khurrana remains busy with his work in Mumbai, his family still stays in Chandigarh. His brother Aparshakti Khurana is a radio jockey at Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM in Delhi and made his acting debut in the 2016 Aamir Khan-starrer film Dangal. The ambience of literature at home influenced Khurrana as well and he took up writing as a hobby. He also maintains a blog where he writes in Hindi and it has been received very well by his admirers.