Naseeruddin Shah born on 20th July 1950 is a senior bollywood actor and director. He is one of the most well respected and legendry actors of the Indian cinema. He is ranked amongst the best ever actors to have graced the silver screen. Be it hero oriented roles during the early part of his career, comic roles, supporting roles or negative role he has done it all and if there is one word to describe his acting its PERFECT.

Naseeruddin Shah happens to be a descendant of the 19th Century Afghani Warlord Jan Fishan Khan. He graduated from Aligarh Muslim University with a degree in Arts. After completing his education he joined the National School of drama in New Delhi.
Before coming in the main stream Bollywood, he worked in offbeat art movies like Nishant, Manthan, Bhumika, Junoon and the highly acclaimed art movie Sparsh. He made his mainstream bollywood entry with the 1980 movie Hum Paanch. In 1986 he starred in the box office smash hit Karma opposite Dilip Kumar. Naseeruddin was already a well respected art movie actor but with the success of Karma, he became a front line mainstream bollywood star. After that he starred in many critically acclaimed movies like Umrao Jan, Jaane bhi do Yaaron, Masoom and Woh Saat Din.
He also acted in comedy movies like Hero Hiralal, Maalamaal and Tridev. In 1992, Naseeruddin Shah played the role of a friendly ghost in the movie Chmatkar opposite Shahrukh Khan and Urmila Matondkar. He played the role of a cristian father in the Shahrukh starrer smash hit Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na. In 1993, he played the role of Professor Amar Verma in the critical and commercial smash hit Sir opposite Pooja bhat and Paresh Rawal. The movie won earth shattering reviews and Naseeruddin Shah’s already acclaimed career jumped to new heights. In 1994, he played his first real mainstream negative role in the action thriller Mohra opposite Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty and Raveena Tandon. Mohra was his 100th movie in bollywood and it went on to become a smash hit at the box office.

In 1994, he starred in another Smash hit Naajayaz featuring Ajay Devgan and Juhi Chawla. He played the role of Ajay Devgan’s father who is known gangster. The movie became a blockbuster and Naseeruddin Shah along with Ajay Devgan were hailed by the critics.  The movie featured the smash hit song “Barsaat Ke Mausam Mein”. Seeing his success in Mohra, Naseeruddin Shah got negative roles in Abundance and he acted in films like Chaahat, Bombay Boyz and Takkar, in all of these movies Naseeruddin Shah played negative roles. In the year 1999, he starred in Amir Khan’s smash hit action movie Sarfarosh. The movie was another box office success and his negative portrayal of Gulfaam Hasan won him accolades again.
In year 2000, he played his dream role of Mahatma Gandhi in the highly acclaimed movie Hey Ram directed by Kamal Hassan. Since that time has acted in commercial and critical success like Maqbool, Main hoon Na,  3 Deewarein, Paheli, Iqbal, Krrish, Omkara and Parzania.

In 2007, he made his Pakistani film debut in Shoaib Mansoor’s highly acclaimed movie Khuda Ke Liye. He played a brief Cameo role in the movie. In 2010, he played a hilarious role of Amar Singh Rathore in the smash hit Romantic Comedy Jane Tu Ya Jaane Na. More critical success followed in the shape of A Wednesday, Firaaq, Ishqiya, Allah Ke Banday, 7 Khoon Maaf and the recently released That Girl in yellow boots. He made his debut as a director with the movie Yun Hota To Kya Hota which was released in the year 2006.

On a personal front Naseeruddin Shah is married to actress Ratna Pathak Shah and he has one daughter and two songs. Naseer and Ratna acted together in the movie Jane Tu yaan Jane Na.