Mukesh Rishi

Mukesh Rishi Biography

Mukesh Rishi is a well-established villain of Indian screen. He has acted in both Bollywood and south Indian movies. He has also appeared in a few Oriya and Bengali films. He is active in Bollywood since early 1990’s and has given his signature to numerous character roles. Known for his physique, this actor is usually casted in villain’s role. He received a Filmfare nomination for best supporting artist in the year 1999 for the movie, Sarfarosh. His character role as Inspector Saleem who assists Aamir Khan was well appreciated and it is one among his most noticed positive roles. He played negative role in two Mohanlal starrer Malayalam movies – Gandharvam and Olympian Anthony Adam. After Amrish Puri, Mukesh is the most powerful villain of Bollywood with his screen presence. Gardish, Loafer, Ghatak... the list is exhaustive.     

He was born in Kashmir on 19 April 1956. His family was into the stone-crushing business in Jammu. He was the first person from his family to try luck in movies. After doing his graduation from Chandigarh, he was engaged in family business for a couple of years. His wife’s family ran a traditional departmental store in Fiji. So, he left family business and reached Fuji. Then he moved to New Zealand to work as a store manager. It was during this time when he started modelling. Between the tight job schedules, he was not able to find enough time for modelling. His modelling assignments too were not satisfactory. His heart desired to return back to India and he reached Mumbai after 7 years.

Then he enrolled at Roshan Taneja's acting school. He was not a good actor and had to learn a lot. His first break was Sanjay Khan's serial, Tipu Sultan, where he played the villain, Mir Sadiq. Priyadarshan's Gardish in 1994 was the landmark movie of his career. In this movie, he reprised the role of Keerikadan Jose, played in the original Malayalam movie, Kireedam. After that, there was no turning back. He played bad guy in uncountable Hindi movies like Baazi, Mrityudaata, Lahoo Ke Do Rang, Sapoot, Kalinga, Gupt and Ram Shastra. It was director Ashutosh Gowariker who suggested his name to John Matthew Matthan, who made his debut movie – Sarfarosh.

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Updated: May 13, 2014