“The only thing I hear people asking about me is ‘is he gay or is he straight?’ Whenever people ask me, I give them an answer but otherwise, what do I care…” Arjun Mathur had told us, this year, when we’d asked him about the favourite rumour he’s heard about himself.

And that’s the thing with Mathur — he really, really doesn’t give a fuck. If you follow him on social media regularly, you’ll see that he’s extremely politically engaged. He doesn’t shy away from making his thoughts known and no topic is ever off-limits. Following the Supreme Court verdict on the Ayodhya-Ram MandirBabri Masjid issue, he shared a screenshot of news bulletins on his Instagram with the caption: “Is anyone surprised?”

This attitude of his is fresh and only makes him even more delectable than he already is. His favourite cuss word is ‘bhenchod’ and his favourite thing to wear to bed is nothing. His favourite historical character is Timothy Leary, an American psychologist who was known for advocating the examination of the therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs. That should tell you a little bit more about him.

This year, his breakout role was as Karan Mehra in Made In Heaven. He played the role of a wedding planner who happens to be gay. Not only was he absolutely believable in extremely (and we mean, extremely) steamy sex scenes, his Heathcliffe-ish broody nature only made him that much more desirable.

From debuting opposite Irrfan Khan in Mira Nair’s Migration to proving his mettle in films like Positive, Luck By Chance and I Am, Mathur could very possibly be Bollywood’s most underrated actor. His recent turn as a homosexual man in the above mentioned Made in Heaven received rave reviews and thankfully, 2019 was the year that the Hindi film industry finally sat up and took notice of him.