Excel Entertainment

Farhan Akhtar is the son of scriptwriter, poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar and screenplay writer Honey Irani. He is also the grandson of Urdu poet Jan Nisar Akhtar. His stepmother is actress Shabana Azmi.

Ritesh Sidhwani was born in a Sindhi family in Mumbai, where he received his education. His father is Chandan Tootaram Sidhwani.

The company’s first production was the critically acclaimed film Dil Chahta Hai in 2001, which marked the directorial debut of Farhan Akhtar. The film received a National Award in the category of Best Feature Film Hindi.

The company then went on to produce the war-drama film Lakshya (2004) and an action-thriller film Don (2006), an official remake of Amitabh Bachchan’s Don (1978), which were both directed by Farhan Akhtar. Both films went on to become critical and commercial successes. This was followed by Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. (2007), which was directed by Reema Kagti.

They then produced a short film Positive (2007) directed by Farhan Akhtar, which was a part of AIDS JaaGo (AIDS Awake), in a joint initiative of Mira Nair's Mirabai Films, voluntary organisations Avahan and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Excels next release was Rock On (2007), a musical drama film written and directed by Abhishek Kapoor. The movie was remarkable and was lauded by both the media and fans. It also won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi and Best Supporting Actor for Arjun Rampal.

This was followed by Zoya Akhtar’s directorial debut film Luck by Chance (2009). The film was widely appreciated for its content and storyline.

Excels next release was Vijay Lalwani’s, psychological thriller film Karthik Calling Karthik (2010) starring Farhan Akhtar, Deepika Padukone, Ram Kapoor. To indulge and prepare for the role Farhan Akhtar isolated himself at home and school and turned off his phone. He also learned to solve the Rubik's Cube, an activity that his character completes in only one try.

In 2011, Excel produced an action thriller film Game (2011) directed by Abhinay Deo featuring a large ensemble cast led by Abhishek Bachchan, Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Boman Irani and Jimmy Sheirgill. Later that year, Zoya Akhtar's widely loved buddy road film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) released starring Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Abhay Deol, Katrina Kaif and Kalki Koechlin. This was followed by Farhan Akhtar’s second installment in the Don series, Don 2 (2011) starring Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Boman Irani, Om Puri. With a box office gross of over ₹202 Crores, the film was one of the highest-grossing Indian films of all time and is the third highest-grossing Indian film of 2011.

Excel's second collaboration with Aamir Khan happened with Talaash (2012) starring Rani Mukerji, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Shernaz Patel. This was followed by Mrighdeep Singh Lamba’s light comedy film Fukrey (2013) starring Pulkit Samrat, Varun Sharma, Manjot Singh, Ali Fazal, Richa Chadda. The film was a commercial hit and garnered a huge cult following. The film was also re-released in September (2013) due to public demand.

Excel produced a dark humour film Bangistan (2015) starring Ritesish Deshmukh and Pulkit Samrat. Later that year, the production house produced the social satire family drama film Dil Dhadakne Do (2015) directed by Zoya Akhtar starring Ranveer Singh, Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Anushka Sharma, Anil Kapoor and Shefali Shah. The film grossed ₹1.45 billion at the box office against a budget of ₹830 million, and earned a number of accolades.

In 2016, Excel produced Nitya Mehra’ romance film Baar Baar Dekho (2016) starring Sidharth Malhotra, Katrina Kaif, as well as Rock On 2 (2016) starring Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Shraddha Kapoor among others.

The company’s first film in 2017 was Rahul Dholakia’s Raees (2017). It featured Shah Rukh Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Mahira Khan. Raees received positive reviews from critics and was a success at Box Office.

This was followed by Mrighdeep Singh Lamba’s Fukrey Returns (2017), which was a much awaited sequel of Fukrey that was well received by all.

In 2018, Excel produced a Thriller Drama Film Three Storeys (2018). The movie demonstrates the art of skillfully telling a story weaving together a thriller, love story, social issues, realities and life all in one package.

After this came Reema Kagti’s historical sports drama Gold (2018) starring Akshay Kumar, Kunal Kapoor, Amit Sadh, Mouni Roy, Vineet Kumar Singh and Sunny Kaushal. The film netted ₹25.25 crores on its opening day, becoming one of the year's biggest opening day releases.

Excel Entertainment then teamed with Anil Thadani and distributed K.G.F:Chapter 1. The movie received a positive response from audiences while critics gave the film mixed reviews. KGF: Chapter 1 on the first day of its release collected ₹25 crores worldwide, which was the highest opening in the Kannada film industry.

February 2019 saw the release of Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy starring Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Vijay Varma, Kalki Koechlin. The movie won a record 13 Filmfare Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor (Ranveer Singh), and Best Actress (Alia Bhatt), and became the second film to win all four acting awards. Additionally, the film was India’s official entry for The Academy Awards in 2020 in the Best Foreign Film Category. Gully Boy received positive reviews from critics with praise directed to Akhtar’s direction, Maurya’s dialogue, Ranveer Singh, Siddhant Chaturvedi, and Alia Bhatt for their performances.

In October, Excel distributed the Hindi-dubbed version of Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy, starring superstar Chiranjeevi and Amitabh Bachchan, which was originally filmed in Telugu. The movie has also been touted as one of the most expensive films to date with a budget of about ₹ 300 crores. It also boasts of some extravagant VFX shots which promise to be a visual delight.

In July 2017, Excel pioneered into the OTT sphere with a sports-drama series Inside Edge created by Karan Anshuman starring Vivek Oberoi, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Richa Chadha, Angad Bedi, Tanuj Virwani, Sayani Gupta among others. The series was critically acclaimed for its strong performances and story line. The series was also nominated for the 46th International Emmy Awards in the category for Best Drama Series.

Their second web series was a Crime-Thriller named Mirzapur (2018) created by Karan Anshuman and Puneet Krishna starring Ali Fazal, Vikrant Massey, Pankaj Tripathi, Divyendu Sharma, Shweta Tripathi. The series was well received worldwide and became a cult hit. Pankaj Tripathi won the Best-Actor Drama at the iReel Awards for the same.

Made In Heaven (2019) released in March. The show was created by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti starring Sobhita Dhulipala, Arjun Mathur, Kalki Koechlin, Jim Sarbh among others. The web-series was appreciated heavily by several critics and multiple positive online reviews. The web-series received an award at the ITA awards for the category Best Series Jury Award and prize for the Best Direction.

After Fukrey became a cult for the youth, a show named Fukrey Boyss (2019) was launched on Discovery Kids which showcased the animated avatars of popular characters Hunny, Choocha, Laali, and Bholi Punjaban.

December 2019 saw the release of Karan Anshuman’s Inside Edge season 2. The second season invites viewers to look at cricket much beyond just a game and manifested a huge public demand.

On October 23rd 2020, season 2 of Mirzapur released on Amazon Prime Video. The new season has been well received by fans and critics.

K.G.F: Chapter 2 is scheduled to release in 2021, a sequel to the 2018 film K.G.F: Chapter 1 starring Yash, Sanjay Dutt, Raveena Tandon, Srinidhi Shetty. Their next project that’s slated to release is Toofan, starring Farhan Akhtar, Paresh Rawal and Mrunal Thakur which is directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and Phone Bhoot starring Ishaan Khatter, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Katrina Kaif in the lead roles, has been announced.

In terms of OTT, they have Season 3 of Inside Edge in the pipeline.