Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah turns 75. Born on 20 July 1950 in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, Naseeruddin Shah completed his early education from Ajmer and Nainital. He then completed his graduation from Aligarh Muslim University. In 1971, he enrolled in the Delhi National School of Drama School with a dream of becoming an actor.
In 1975, Naseeruddin Shah met well-known producer-director Shyam Benegal. Shyam Benegal was preparing to make his film ‘Nishant’ for those days. Shyam Benegal appeared in Naseeruddin Shah an emerging star and gave an opportunity to work in his film.
The year 1976 proved to be an important stage in Naseeruddin Shah’s cine career. This year a successful film like his role and Manthan was released. The acting of Naseeruddin Shah in the film ‘Manthan’ on the milk revolution gave new colors to the audience. For the production of this film, about five lakh farmers of Gujarat gave two rupees to the filmmakers out of their daily wages and later when the film was released, the film proved to be a super hit at the box office.
In 1977, Naseeruddin Shah, along with his friends Banjamin Geelani and Tom Alter, founded a theater group called Motelle Production, under the direction of Samimual Backet under the banner, the first drama ‘Waiting for Godot’ was shown among the audience in the Prithvi Theater.
The new dimension of Naseeruddin Shah’s performance in the film ‘Sparsh’ released in 1979 was seen by the audience. Playing the role of a blind person in this film was a big challenge for any actor. Telling the audience everything from facial expressions was an example of Naseeruddin Shah’s acting talent that hardly an actor could repeat.
The film Aakrosh Naseeruddin Shah, released in 1980, is one of the important films of Naseeruddin Shah’s cine career. Directed by Govind Nihalani, Naseeruddin Shah appeared in the role of a lawyer who wants to protect an innocent person from hanging, regardless of society and politics. However, he has to face a lot of difficulty for this. In 1983, Naseeruddin Shah got an opportunity to work in Sai Paranjpe’s film Katha. The story of the film showed the battle of race between turtles and rabbits in a modern way.
In 1983, another superhit film of Naseer’s cine career, Jaane Do Yaaro was released. Directed by Kundan Shah, the film saw a new color of Naseeruddin Shah’s performance. Prior to this film, it was a perception about him that he is only capable of playing serious roles but he mesmerized the audience with his tremendous comedies. In 1985, another important film of Naseeruddin Shah’s cine career was released, Mirch Masala was released.
In the last years of the eighties, Naseeruddin Shah also turned to commercial cinema. During this time, he got an opportunity to work in films like Hero Heera Lal, Malamal, Jalwa and Tridev, after which Naseeruddin Shah was also established in commercial cinema. In the nineties, Naseer also turned to the small screen, seeing the choice of the audience and starred in the 1988 serial Mirza Ghalib.
Apart from this, in the year 1989, he entertained the audience by bringing the role of Maratha King Shivaji in a search serial in the year 1989. He introduced himself in various roles in the nineties to avoid uniformity in acting and establish himself as a character actor. In this sequence, he did not even hesitate to play the Khal character in the 1994 film Mohra. In this film too, he kept the audience’s mind.
After this, he entertained the audience by playing the role of villain in films like competition, Himmat, Chahat, Rajkumar, Sarfarosh and Krish. Naseeruddin Shah’s cine career was well liked with his pair Smita Patil. Naseeruddin Shah has been awarded the Filmfare Award for Best Actor three times so far.
Along with all this, Naseeruddin Shah has also been awarded the National Award thrice. In view of his remarkable contribution in the field of the film, he has also been awarded the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan Award by the Government of India. Naseeruddin Shah has acted in more than 200 films in a four -decade long cine career.
