Karan Veer Mehra

Not to be confused with Karan Mehra.

Karan Veer Mehra
Mehra in 2025
Born	Karan Mehra (1982-12-28) 28 December 1982 New Delhi, India
Alma mater	University of Delhi
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2004–present
Spouses	Devika Mehra ​ ​ (m. 2009; div. 2018)​ Nidhi Seth ​ ​ (m. 2021; div. 2023)​

Karan Mehra (born 28 December 1982), known professionally as Karan Veer Mehra, is an Indian actor. He is best known in television for essaying the lead role in the long-running serial Pavitra Rishta, Mehra is the winner of India’s biggest controversial reality show Bigg Boss 18 and the stunt-based show Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi 14.

He began his career with the show Remix in 2004 and has later appeared in many notable shows. He has also worked in Hindi cinema and starrred in movies such as Ragini MMS 2, Mere Dad Ki Maruti, Blood Money, Badmashiyaan and numerous short films like Lights Out and Amen. He has also written concepts and acted for the YouTube series Superb Ideas Trending (SIT) and produced Couple of Mistakes. Mehra also pleaded support to initiate Road Safety Awareness with Diageo.

Early and personal life

Karan Mehra was born in Delhi to a Punjabi family on 28th December 1982. Since he lost his father in a tender age of ten, women around him played the central role in his upbringing and were the guiding force in his childhood. Mehra has admitted to be dyslexic due to which he used to underperform academically but with his mother’s proper mentorship, he was able to recover and score higher later. He studied in a boarding school in Mussoorie; Wynberg Allen School till 10th. Post that, he pursued his further studies in Delhi. He completed 11th and 12th from Delhi Public School, Vasant Kunj. He completed his Bachelor’s in Advertising & Sales Promotion from Delhi College of Arts & Commerce (Delhi University).

From a young age, Mehra was clear about his aspirations in life to either work in Hindi cinema or become a cricketer, with the latter choice being discouraged by his family. He gained his theatrical expertise under the tutelage of Barry John and ultimately that was where he earned his first role when he went to support a friend to an audition where he got selected instead.

He married his college sweetheart, Devika Mehra, in 2009 at age 27. Nine years later, in 2018, they divorced. In 2021, he married actress Nidhi Seth during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the couple separated after two years.

Later in his early career, Karan added Veer to his name on the instruction of his grandmother. Veer is the name of Karan’s late grandfather.

Career

Doing theatre and television debut (early 2000s–2006)

Driven to act early on, the young Karan Veer Mehra impressed the renowned British-Indian theater director, acting coach, and playwright, Barry John who is best known for training several Bollywood actors, including Shah Rukh Khan, Manoj Bajpayee, and Sushant Singh Rajput as Mehra joined his acting academy to hone his stance in modern Indian theatre and film acting. While doing theatre, he was once asked a favour of help rehearsing some lines for an audition by a fellow aspirant and then later dragged along to the actual audition of the youth-based show Remix in 2005 where he managed to bag the role of Aditya Sahani which marked his television debut. In the same year, he played Soham Mehta, one of the main characters in the college drama Saath Rahega Always.

In the year 2006, Mehra wore many hats at the same time as he manoeuvred through a hectic schedule filming for numerous television shows and sitcoms such as Shanno Ki Shaadi where he personified the role of a parallel lead character, Kunnu, which also starred Divya Dutta and Vikas Bhalla in lead characters. Second appearance came as Rajdeep Sikand in Sati...Satya Ki Shakti and Twinkle Beauty Parlour Lajpat Nagar, where he played Rocky, while he also did a few episodes for horror-thriller anthology series Ssshhhh... Phir Koi Hai.

Acting debut in films & beyond (2007-2016)

In 2007-2008, Mehra had his name marked in the ensemble star-studded cast of the Sony Television soap opera Virrudh as a wealthy, devil-may-care youngster Vedant Raisinghania. Produced by Smriti Irani’s own production house, the show also featured the latter and a roster of populated stars and veterans like Vikram Gokhale, Sushant Singh and Achint Kaur. He then went on to score the key role of a winsome aspiring director, Karan Mehra, in Star One's Pari Hoon Main opposite Rashami Desai and the show was directed by Ravi Chopra. He secured his Bollywood debut with the movie Drona where he acted in the role of Abhishek Bachchan’s foster brother, Roger. He was also seen in the movie Aagey Se Right as the character Rocky, with Shreyas Talpade in the lead role.

Subsequently, Mehra embodied various personalities on television in the women-centric shows which include a business tycoon Yuvraj Goel in Sony TV's Hum Ladkiyan, where he played the love interest of the protagonist Urmila Tiwari and then came an antagonistic character named Karan Rajvansh in StarPlus soap opera Behenein in 2010.

Mehra played a homosexual male character, Harry, in a 2010 LGBTQ short film called Amen, which was directed, written and produced by Judhajit Bagchi and Ranadeep Bhattacharyya. The short-form cinematic film was 24 minutes long and was inspired from the life of the human right activist Harish Iyer. It had been acknowledged globally and had premiered in film festivals far and wide although with a fair share of controversies. He also made a brief appearance in 2011’s thriller No One Killed Jessica led by Rani Mukerji and Vidya Balan.

Essaying the role of the astute Inspector Rajhans in the Sony Entertainment Television cop-based show Surya – The Super Cop while simultaneously playing the cunning Bhanu Shergill in Ekta Kapoor’s Bade Achhe Lagte Hain, Mehra familiarised himself with the TV audience as the devious heartthrob cum villain, Yug Mehra, in Life OK's Amrit Manthan, featuringAdaa Khan, Dimple Jhangiani and Ankita Sharma.

Mehra garnered critical praise and wider prominence for portraying the role of a mentally-challenged entrepreneur, Naren Karmarkar, in Zee TV’s long-running serial Pavitra Rishta where he romanced Ankita Lokhande as the third generation leads. While the show was in the running and when it ended, he snagged a number of roles in Hindi films like the friend-turned-antagonist Dr Rahul in Bloody Isshq, an unexpected saviour brother-in-law Raj in Mere Dad Ki Maruti alongside Saqib Saleem, Rhea Chakraborty, Ram Kapoor and Ravi Kishan; and then Inspector Bobby Kapadia in the Kunal Khemu-led Blood Money and the comedy flick Badmashiyaan where he played a central character of a self-proclaimed detective Pinkesh ‘Pinky’ Kapoor. The film also starred Sidhant Gupta, Suzanna Mukherjee and Sharib Hashmi in pivotal roles and was directed by Amit Khanna. Among these, what won him the most recognition, was his role as Maddy in 2014 erotic horror film Ragini MMS 2, directed by Bhushan Patel, where he shared the sensational screen space with Bollywood renowned actress, Sunny Leone, which became a viral sensation.

In 2015, he also slipped-in an appearance in Zee TV miniseries Rishton Ka Mela, opposite Sargun Mehta as Karan Singh Gurjar. The series also was a home to myriad of television stars like Sayantani Ghosh, Adaa Khan, Usha Nadkarni, Hiten Tejwani, Gauri Pradhan and Karan Grover. Amidst it all, Mehra personified the character of the henpecked husband Ashwin opposite Chhavi Mittal, in SIT, a web series originated on YouTube and also contributed in scripts and concepts for the episodes.

Professional expansion (2017–2024)

After playing a caught-in-a-bind TV producer Rajeev Gupta in Sab TV’s comedy show TV Biwi Aur Main in 2017 where he collaborated onscreen with Shruti Seth as spouses, Mehra swerved to web shows and OTT projects. Cast opposite Swara Bhasker as Jayesh in the Voot/JioCinema web series It's Not That Simple in 2018 as Purab Kohli, Sumeet Vyas, Vivan Bhatena also partook their respective parts in the series. Mehra also reprised his role as Ashwin but this time in the web show called Couple of Mistakes alongside Barkha Bisht which additionally marked his debut project as a producer.

In 2019, Mehra played a part in Zee Theatre's English stage play Lights Out where he essayed the role of Bhaskar. The storyline of the play is reportedly based on true events while the theatre play also features Smriti Kalra and is directed by Ritesh Menon. He also appeared in the SonyLIV series Heartbreak Hotel as Rohit while doing a cameo of a key character Jaiveer Khanna who is wrongfully arrested and framed by his own friends for a crime he didn’t commit in the ZEE5 action crime thriller Poison 2. The revenge series also had an ensemble of actors Aftab Shivdasani, Vin Rana, Rahul Dev and Zain Imam.

Returning to television, after he caught the role of a famed journalist Rohit Khanna in the women empowerment comedy show Carry on Alia, Mehra soared to pull off a hat-trick of negative and grey characters with the exploitative spouse Abhay Mehra in Sony SAB’s Ziddi Dil Maane Na, a man driven by the voice of his obsession in Woh Toh Hai Albelaa as Dr Vikrant Desai and lastly a pathologically selfish partner, Vaibhav Joshi, in Baatein Kuch Ankahee Si.

Mehra started the year 2024 with a cameo in Sony Entertainment revenge thriller show Pukaar - Dil Se Dil Tak, where he essayed the role of a man whose brutal murder is orchestrated by the same family he works for due to internal family power struggles which lead to a lethal conspiracy against him. The character, Gautam Rathore, was short-lived but his killing sets the stage for the rest of the drama to unfold.

Reality shows (2024–present)

In May 2024, Mehra was confirmed to participate in the 14th season of the stunt-based reality show Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi, hosted by Rohit Shetty. Fair and square and throughout, Mehra remained the only contestant to ace and win nearly all of the stunts with the least losses as on 29 September 2024, he brought home the trophy of Khatron Ke Khiladi 14.

In the same year, he also participated in the eighteenth season of India’s biggest reality show Bigg Boss, hosted by Salman Khan, where he made headlines as one of the strongest competitors, amassing him a grandly massive fame to the point the reality show was dubbed to be ‘The Karan Veer Mehra Show.’ He was also one of the most tweeted contestants with social media trends and fan-following sky-rocketing alike as he finished to be the winner of Bigg Boss 18 on the season’s finale on 19th January 2025 respectively as many fans of the show called Mehra’s victory a ‘personal win’. Mehra is ranked 3rd in the IMDb list of Bigg Boss winners. He is also the only celebrity to have clinched the title of Khatron Ke Khiladi and have won Bigg Boss through it all, after Sidharth Shukla.

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
2025	Iconic Gold Awards	Most Influential Personality TV Male	Bigg Boss	Won

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role
2008	Pathan
	Drona	Rajesh/Roger
2009	Aage Se Right	Rocky
2011	No One Killed Jessica	Model
2012	Blood Money	Inspector Bobby Kapadia
	Love Possible	Gaurav Jetlly
2013	Bloody Isshq	Rahul
	Mere Dad Ki Maruti	Raj
2014	Ragini MMS 2	Maddy
2015	Badmashiyaan	Pinkesh Kapoor
2021	Choices	Tarun

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	Remix	Aditya
	Saath Rahega Always	Soham
2006	Sati...Satya Ki Shakti	Rajdeep Sikand
	Twinkle Beauty Parlour Lajpat Nagar	Rocky
	Shanno Ki Shaadi	Kunnu
	Ssshhhh...Phir Koi Hai	Karan/Kunal	Episode 12/32
2007–2008	Virrudh	Vedant Raisinghania
2008	Pari Hoon Main	Karan
2008–2009	Hum Ladkiyan	Yuvraj Goel
2010–2011	Behenein	Karan Rajvnash
2011	Surya – The Super Cop	Inspector Rajhans
2011	Bade Achhe Lagte Hain	Bhanu Shergill
2012–2013	Amrit Manthan	Yug
2013–2014	Pavitra Rishta	Naren Karmarkar
2015	Rishton Ka Mela	Karan Singh Gurjar
2017	TV Biwi Aur Main	Rajeev
2020	Carry On Alia	Rohit
2021–2022	Ziddi Dil Maane Na	Abhay Mehra
2022–2023	Woh Toh Hai Albelaa	Dr. Vikrant Desai
2023–2024	Baatein Kuch Ankahee Si	Vaibhav Joshi
2024	Pukaar – Dil Se Dil Tak	Gautam Rathore
	Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi 14	Contestant	Winner
2024–2025	Bigg Boss 18

Web series

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2010	Amen	Harry	Short film
2018	It's Not That Simple	Jayesh
2019	Heartbreak Hotel	Rohit	Episode 2
	Lights Out	Bhaskar	Zee Theatre Play
2020	Poison 2	Jaiveer	Cameo

Music videos

Year	Title	Singer(s)	Ref.
2020	Aadat	Aaman Trikha, Lizza Malik
2024	Kehna Galat Galat	Jyoti Nooran, Javed–Mohsin

Sports

Since 2013, Mehra has been an active part of All Stars Football Club (ASFC). In 2014, he got his passion for cricket rejuvenated as he participated as the team captain in the season 1 of Box Cricket League for the team Kolkata Babu Moshayes, later shifting to the team Delhi Dragons for the second season in 2016 and then ultimately exiting the celebrity-cricket-based show in the middle.

External links

• Karan Veer Mehra at IMDb