Farooq Sheikh

Farooq Sheikh Biography

Farooq Sheikh is a Bollywood actor during 1970’s and 1980’s who has contributed a lot to parallel cinema. He belongs to that string of actors who have set a new path in cinema making and that trend started in the middle 70’s. He has been the popular choice of many great directors of art cinema - Satyajit Ray, Muzaffar Ali, Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Ketan Mehta. He is a popular serial actor too, who has started his career in Doordarshan during late 80’s. He was the presenter of the popular celebrity chat show of ZEE television, ‘Jeena ise ka naam hai’. He has won national awards for best supporting actor for the movie ‘Lahore’ in the year 2010. Stage show, ‘Tumhari Amrita’ that he performed with actress Shabana Azmi was also popular.

Farooq Sheikh was born in a Zamindar family in Gujarat. He was the eldest of the five and led a luxurious life. He was active in theatre for a long time and it helped him to show those talents on silver screen too. That’s why he became a popular choice of art films. He started his career during early 70’s and his major film was ‘Garam hawa’ directed by M. S. Sathyu. Balraj Sahni played leading actor role while Farooq played supporting role. It was India's official entry to the Academy Award's Best Foreign Film category at Cannes Film Festival.

He began to get a few more roles in art cinema category. His most popular movies during 70’s include – Mere saath chal, Shatranj ke khiladi, Noorie and Gaman. Noorie directed by Manmohan Krishna under Yash Chopra’s film banner was released in 1979. This movie is one among the best romantic roles of Farooq Sheikh. Poonam Dillon played heroine’s role and the title track, ‘Noorie’ is still popular, both in original and remixed versions.

He began to get more meaty roles during 1980’s and his supporting actor role opposite Supriya Pathak in critically well acclaimed movie ‘Baazar’ needs special mention. Nasuruddeen Shah and Smita Patel played leading roles. His enacted the role of a lover boy and how he handled the tragic end of his love story with Supriya is really commendable. His other movies are – Kisse ne na dekha, Saath saath, Umrao jaan and Chashme badoor. Now he is doing supporting actor roles in movies and a few of some include – Yeh jawani hai diwani, Shanghai, Saas Bahu Aur Sensex and Accident on Hill Road.

He has also worked in the controversial movie of Shahrukh Khan – Maya Meimsaab. His other movies during 80’s are Biwi Ho To Aisi, Anjuman, Ek pal, Salma, Faasla, Ab aayega mazaa, Lorie, Lakhom ki baat, Rang birangi, Katha, Gharwali baharwali and Ek pal.

Farooq Sheikh died of a heart attack in Dubai on 27 December 2013. He was on a holiday in Dubai with his family.

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Updated: April 01, 2014