[2] Kumar comes from an aristocratic Kashmiri Hindu family; his great-grandfather was a nobleman who governed the Gilgit Agency as its Wazir-e-Wazarat.

National College in Bandra, Mumbai, and later joined the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune.

Rakesh Roshan's Khudgarz got him back to Hindi cinema, in which negative roles in films like Tezaab and Khuda Gawah won him accolades as an antihero.

He has since established himself as a star in the Indian television industry in series such as Zindagi, Ghutan,[4] Sahil, Manzil, Grihasti, Katha Sagar, Aur Phir ek Din, Papa, Miilee, and Chhajje Chajje Ka Pyar.

Kiran made his most recent film appearance in Brothers, alongside Akshay Kumar, Jackie Shroff and Siddharth Malhotra.