Junaid Khan (Indian actor)

Theatre

Khan began his acting career on stage, with a role in Quasar Thakore-Padamsee’s adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s play Mother Courage and Her Children in 2017.^[7] He then played the lead role of a slave in his sister, Ira's theatre production of Medea, at the Prithvi Theatre in 2019.^[6][8]

In 2024, Khan starred in Faezeh Jalali's tragicomedy play Runaway Brides, as part of the Prithvi Theatre festival.^[9] Also at the theatre, he played multiple roles in Shikhandi, based on the character of the same name.^[10] In the same year, he played a trans woman in Jalali's play Strictly Unconventional at the National Centre for the Performing Arts.^[11] Reviewing the play, Deepa Gahlot found Khan "totally relaxed in his flamboyant outfit and wig".^[12]

Films

Khan made his lead acting debut with the leading role of social reformer Karsandas Mulji in the period drama film Maharaj. It is based on the Maharaj Libel Case of 1862, about a priest who sexually assaulted women. Khan prepared for a year to play Mulji, relying on information he found in the public domain, losing around 25 kg of body weight, and learning the dialect in which Mulji spoke.^[13] The film was released on Netflix in 2024, following delays due to legal disputes.^[14][15] Shilajit Mitra of The Hindu reviewed that Khan is "sincere and sharp-featured as the striving Karsandas [...] though still miles away from emerging a captivating leading man: he is especially dull in the courtroom scenes".^[16]

In 2025, Khan had his first theatrical release opposite Khushi Kapoor in the romantic comedy Loveyapa, a remake of the Tamil film Love Today (2022).^[17][18] It tells the story of an engaged couple who switch phones before their marriage; Khan admitted to feeling miscast in the role as he found his character’s personality vastly different from his own.^[19] Titas Chowdhury of News18 took note of Khan's comic timing, which he did not have an opportunity to display in Maharaj.^[20] Conversely, Rediff.com's Sukanya Verma dismissed his "acting method [as] akin to someone wringing out water from a towel" and criticised his chemistry with Kapoor.^[21] It emerged as a box-office bomb.^[22] The following year, Khan starred opposite Sai Pallavi in the Sapporo-set romance Ek Din (2026), produced by his father.^[23] In a mixed review of the film for the Indian edition of The Hollywood Reporter, Rahul Desai criticised the actor's portrayal of his introverted character "as if it’s a medical condition", believing that Khan had been overshadowed by Pallavi, who he remarked is "acting for two".^[24] Again, it was a box-office failure for Khan.^[25]

Films

Theatre

• Mother Courage and Her Children (2017)
• Medea (2019)
• Runaway Brides (2024)
• Shikhandi (2024)
• Strictly Unconventional (2024)