Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Amol Palekar

Amol Palekar (born 24 November 1944) is an Indian actor and a director and producer of Hindi and Marathi cinema.

He studied Fine Arts at the Sir JJ School of Arts, Mumbai, and commenced his artistic career as a painter. As a painter, he had seven one-man exhibitions and participated in many group shows. He has been active in the avant garde theatre in India. He has been active in Marathi and Hindi theatre as an actor, director and producer since 1967. His contribution to modern Indian theatre often gets overshadowed by his popularity as a lead actor in Hindi films.

As an actor, he was most prominent for over a decade from 1970. His image as a "boy next door" contrasted with the larger-than-life heroes prevalent at that time in Indian cinema. He received three Film Fare and six State awards as Best Actor. His performances in regional language films in Marathi, Bengali, Malyalam and Kannada fetched him critical acclaim as well. He decided not to act after 1986 in order to concentrate on filmmaking.

As a director, he is known for the sensitive portrayal of women, selection of classic stories from Indian literature, and perceptive handling of progressive issues. He has directed several television serials on the national network such as "Kachchi Dhoop", "Mrignayani", "Naquab", "Paool Khuna" and "Krishna Kali".

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