Excel Entertainment

Excel Entertainment is an Indian production company, founded by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar in 1999. Based in Mumbai, they mainly produce Hindi films. They are also known to be the pioneers of original content on Online Digital platforms in India. In 2017, they released India's first original series for Amazon Prime Video – Inside Edge, which was nominated for the International Emmy Awards for Best Drama Series.
Their first film, Dil Chahta Hai, received critical acclaim. They won national awards for "Dil Chahta Hai" and "Rock On!!". With movies like Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Don, Fukrey, Raees and Dil Dhadakne Do, Excel is known for its contemporary and diversified characters and style of cinema. Their film Gully Boy was also India's official entry to the 92nd Academy Awards.
Excel Entertainment also produced the Hindi dubbed versions of the 2018 Indian Kannada-language period action K.G.F: Chapter 1 starring Yash and the 2019 Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy, an Indian Telugu-language epic action film, starring Chiranjeevi.
Their upcoming film releases include Toofaan starring Farhan Akhtar,   starring Yash and Phone Bhoot starring Katrina Kaif, Ishan Khatter and Siddhant Chaturvedi. Their upcoming O.T.T. show is Inside Edge Season 3.
Personalities.
Farhan Akhtar.
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.
Ritesh Sidhwani was born in a Sindhi family in Mumbai, where he received his education. His father is Chandan Tootaram Sidhwani.
Films.
2001 - 2010.
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). While Lakshya (2004) was critically acclaimed, it did not fare well at the box office. Excel also produced the film Don (2006), an official remake of Amitabh Bachchan’s Don (1978), which did critically and commercially well.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 organizations Avahan and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Excel's next release was Rock On (2007), a musical drama film written and directed by Abhishek Kapoor. The movie received positive to mixed reviews from critics and did not do well at the box office. 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 well received by some critics, but it again did not do well at the box office. 
Excel's next release was Vijay Lalwani’s, psychological thriller film Karthik Calling Karthik (2010) starring Farhan Akhtar, Deepika Padukone, and Ram Kapoor. To indulge and prepare for the role, Farhan Akhtar isolated himself at home and turned off his phone. He also learned to solve the Rubik's Cube, an activity that his character completes in only one try.
2011 - 2015.
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 Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) film became a critical and commercial success; it starred 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 was 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 sleeper hit and received mixed reviews. 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.
2016 - Present.
In 2016, Excel produced Nitya Mehra’s 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 sequel of the film Fukrey. It received negative reviews. 
In 2018, Excel produced a Thriller Drama Film Three Storeys (2018). 
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 . 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.
OTT.
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 by audiences, but received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Pankaj Tripathi won the Best-Actor Drama at the iReel Awards for the series.
The TV series 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.
A show named Fukrey Boyss (2019) was launched on Discovery Kids.
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 23 October 2020, season 2 of Mirzapur released on Amazon Prime Video.
Upcoming projects.
"" is scheduled to release on 16 July 2021, a sequel to the 2018 film K.G.F: Chapter 1 starring Yash, Sanjay Dutt, Raveena Tandon, Srinidhi Shetty. Excel’s next project, Toofaan starring Farhan Akhtar, Paresh Rawal and Mrunal Thakur directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, is slated to release in 2021.
Phone Bhoot, a horror/comedy is currently being shot and is starring Katrina Kaif, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ishaan Khatter in the lead roles, directed by Gurmmeet Singh.
On 15 February 2021, Yudhra starring Siddhant Chaturvedi, Malavika Mohanan and Raghav Juyal was announced. The film is helmed by Ravi Udhyavar and is slated to release in Summer 2022.