Anupam Kher – Keynote Speaker

Anupam Kher is one of India’s most acclaimed and versatile actors. He is also a film producer, an acting school founder, and an award-winning philanthropist. He has acted in 450 films and more than 100 plays, including many successful Bollywood films, and several successful Punjabi, British, Hollywood and Chinese films.

Kher has won the Filmfare Award for ‘Best Performance in a Comic Role’ five times, more than any other actor, and holds the record as the only actor in the industry to have won eight consecutive Filmfare awards. He also won the 14th IIFA award for ‘Outstanding Contribution by an Indian to International Cinema’ in 2013.

He served as chairman of the Indian Film Censor Board from 2003 and 2004, and was the director of the National School of Drama from 2001 and 2004. In 2004 he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India for his contribution to Indian cinema, the fourth highest civilian award.

Anupam Kher is one of India’s most prominent theatre and film personalities. He is widely regarded as an intellectual talk show participant, as well as a motivational, film and celebrity speaker. In recent years, Kher is frequently sought after by business schools and corporates, to provide life coaching.

He began his glorious career on the silver screen with National award-winning roles in ‘Saaransh’ and ‘Daddy’. He then went on to give great performances in films like ‘Karma’, ‘Lamhe’, ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge’, ‘Khosla Ka Ghosla’ and ‘A Wednesday’, among many others. Kher then successfully entered into production of national and international award winning films, such as ‘Bariwali’ and ‘Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara’.

After two decades spent rising to celebrity status in India, Kher’s appearance in the popular English-language romantic comedies “Bend It Like Beckham” (2002) and “Bride and Prejudice” (2004) brought him international recognition. He also appeared on the popular series ‘ER’ in 2004 and in the big Hollywood dramas ‘The Mistress of Spices’ (2006), Ang Lee’s ‘Lust, Caution’ (2007), and with Robert De Niro in the Academy Award-nominated film ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ (2012).

In 2005 he established his dream project, ‘Actor Prepares’, a premier acting school in the heart of Mumbai, with big names like Danny Boyle and Shekhar Kapur serving as guest faculty.

Kher is also a philanthropist, and received the Dalai Lama Award for his work with underprivileged children. He works actively with the Kashmiri-Pandit refugee community, and serves as the Goodwill Ambassador for Pratham Educational Foundation. He has for many years been a teacher to differently-abled children, and is one of the founder members of The People For Animals. In 2008, he established The Anupam Kher Foundation, to spread education among less privileged children, and to provide palliative care to people with life-limiting diseases.

He authored his first book on his philosophy on life coaching, titled ‘The Best Thing About You is You!’ in 2011. The book was endorsed by many celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, and is a bestseller.