Roshan Taneja

Roshan Taneja Biography

Roshan Taneja was a prominent acting guru of Indian cinema, best known for introducing method acting to Indian film scene. Since early 1960s, he trained numerous stars and superstars of Bollywood, which include many A-grade and national award winning actors. Aamir Khan, Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Mithun Chakraborty, Anil Kapoor, Rani Mukerji, Shatrughan Sinha, Karishma Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Tabu, Madhuri Dixit, Om Puri, Jaya Bachchan, Asrani etc are some of the prominent actors he studied under him either at FTII (1963 - 1975) or his own acting institute, Roshan Taneja School of Acting which he started in 1976 after quitting FTII.

Roshan Taneja’s family originally belonged to North West Frontier Province, now in Pakistan. In the early 1940s, when Roshan was a child, his family relocated to Kanpur, where it got settled. Roshan dreamt to become an actor and to pursue his dreams, he studied acting course from prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre at New York and returned back to India in the 1960s. However he failed to get acting roles. Though he hated teaching most, when he was offered a teaching post at FTII which was still in its child stage, he accepted it.

He was associated with FTII for more than a decade before starting his own acting school - Roshan Taneja School of Acting in 1976. He was the first guru to teach method acting in India, at a time when there was no many acting schools here. Some of his prominent students at FTII are Jaya Bhaduri, Shabana Azmi, Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Mithun Chakraborty etc. After he started his own institute, he trained numerous commercially successful actors and actresses of new generation. No doubt, he was the most reputed acting guru of Hindi cinema. He passed away in 2019 after fighting with pancreas cancer.

Published: November 07, 2019

Updated: November 07, 2019