Zahan Kapoor, grandson of Shashi Kapoor and Jennifer Kapoor, stepped into the spotlight with his OTT debut Black Warrant, a hard-hitting prison drama directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, set inside Tihar Jail and starring him as a rookie jailor navigating power, morality and harsh realities within India’s most infamous prison.
His performance won praise from critics and audiences, helping the series become one of the most talked-about streaming shows of the year.
Before Black Warrant, Zahan made his screen acting debut with the Hansal Mehta film Faraaz (2022), where he portrayed a key role in the intense thriller based on real events.  Following the success of Black Warrant, Zahan opened up about the weight of expectations that come with being part of Bollywood’s first family. Speaking at the CNN-News18’s Streaming Stars Roundtable 2025, the actor addressed the common assumption that his career choices were driven by rebellion or calculated risk given his family lineage.
When asked whether choosing unconventional projects was a conscious decision to move away from the “big Bollywood way”, Zahan said, “Not at all. But it’s a very understandable perspective. This is exactly like taking limited data and trying to come up with a theory. But the reality is that there is actually 10 or 100 times more data that has not been communicated.”
He explained that there was never any attempt to shape or manipulate an image. “Maine aise socha nahi ki mujhe kuch manipulate karna hai, apni image ko create karne ke liye, ya main aise hi karunga is tareeke se, ya main kisi cheez ka virodh kar raha hoon. Aisa kuch nahi tha.”
Zahan also spoke about how his surname often leads to assumptions that do not reflect his lived reality.
“It was just really simple. Yeh batana zaroori hai, kyunki logon ko lagta hai ki yaar yeh Kapoor khandaan ka hai. But the truth is that my parents were not members of the industry. My father was an ad film maker, producer. That world is very different from the film industry. A little bit touch points were there, but really not active.”
He added that even his legendary grandparents were long removed from the industry by the time he began considering acting. “Dadaji had retired. Nanaji was also there, but they also lived separately. And he was also retired in that sense. So the degrees of separation were greater.”
Zahan Kapoor’s Black Warrant turned out to be one of the most talked-about OTT shows of last year. It was widely appreciated for its storytelling and performances and steadily grew in popularity through word of mouth.