Gajanan Jagirdar

Gajanan Jagirdar was born on Apr 02, 1907 in British India. Gajanan Jagirdar's big-screen debut came with Raj Tilak directed by S.S. Vasan in 1959, strarring Sardar Mangal Sen. Gajanan Jagirdar is known for Umrao Jaan directed by Muzaffar Ali, Rekha stars as Amiran and Farooq Shaikh as Nawab Sultan. The most recent award Gajanan Jagirdar achieved is Bengal Film Journalists' Award. The upcoming new movie Gajanan Jagirdar plays is Aap Ke Saath which will be released on Mar 04, 1986.

First major freelance director-character actor in Marathi and Hindi cinema. Born in Amravati. Child actor on amateur stage. Started Arun Players in Pune and staged Chekov's Cherry Orchard and Harindranath Chattopadhyay's Returned from Abroad. Claimed Ernst Lubitsch's The Patriot (1928) as a major influence. Started in films as writer of English intertitles at Prabhat; then bit actor. Apprenticed to Bhalji Pendharkar. Made films for Master Vinayak's Huns Pictures, briefly at Minerva Movietone as scenarist for Sohrab Modi (Meetha Zaher, Talaaq, etc.) and at P.K. Atre's company. Best-known film: Ramshastri (at Prabhat), taking over the direction from Raja Nene and Bedekar as well as playing the lead role. Main performance was as the Muslim patriarch in Shantaram's Shejari. Appointed first director of the FTII (1960) and became well-known pedagogue applying e.g. Stanislavski's theories to local conditions in a book about acting (1983). Published two autobiographies (1971 & 1986). Made a TV serial, Swami, on the life of Madhavrao Peshwa, celebrating Marathi chauvinism.