Did you know 'Lagaan' director Ashutosh Gowariker started his career as an actor? Here are projects he featured onscreen

Ashutosh Gowariker in Kaala Paani

Film director Ashutosh Gowariker is well known for making movies such as 'Lagaan', 'Swades', 'Jodhaa Akbar'. However, the filmmaker started his career in the movies as an actor in the year 1984. He had featured in director Ketan Mehta's coming-of-age drama film 'Holi'. The film also starred Aamir Khan, Om Puri, Shreeram Lagoo, Deepti Naval, Meena Phatak and Naseeruddin Shah. Gowariker essayed the role of Ranjeet Prakash who was Aamir Khan's character Madan Sharma's college friend.

On Ashutosh Gowariker's birthday, we look at some of the films and series he featured in as an actor:

Kaala Paani (2023):

Gowariker was seen as Lt. Governor Zibran Qadri in this Netflix original series. The series narrated the story of how when a mysterious disease comes down upon the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a desperate effort for survival collides with a race to discover a remedy laced with human connections and tale of love, loss and despair.

Ventilator (2016):

This is a 2016 Marathi film that has an ensemble cast of more than 100 actors including Ashutosh Gowariker, Jitendra Joshi, Sulbha Arya, and Sukanya Kulkarni. It tells the story of the Kamerkar family, whose eldest and most beloved member goes into a coma and is put on a medical ventilator a few days before the Ganesh Chaturthi festival celebrations. Gowariker plays a famous Bollywood director in the film.

CID:

In the initial years of the popular television show, Gowariker essayed the role of Sr Inspector Virendra from 1998-1999. He first appeared in the episode "The Case of the Thief Within - I". His last episode in the show was the episode "The Case of Missing Fugitive - II". His character was transferred.

Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (1994):

Gowariker essayed the role of Imran Bilal, a friend to Shah Rukh Khan's character Sunil Bakshi. The film directed by Kundan Shah also stars Deepak Tijori, Suchitra Krishnamurthy, Satish Shah, Tiku Talsania among others.

Woh (1998):

This 52-episode Indian horror thriller television series aired on Zee TV in 1998. The series starred Ashutosh Gowariker and dwarf actor Lilliput in the title role. The show is an adaptation of Stephen King's epic horror novel 'It'.

Directorial journey:

Ashutosh started his directorial journey with the film 'Pehla Nasha' in 1993 an followed it with 'Baazi'. The 2000s proved to be a fruitful career phase for Ashutosh Gowariker. During that period, he directed and produced three of his most commercially and critically successful films. He directed Lagaan in 2001 starring Aamir Khan in the lead. The film was also nominated at the Oscars under the Best Feature Film category. His next film was 'Swades' which starred Shah Rukh Khan in the lead. The plot was based on two episodes of the series Vaapsi on Zee TV's Yule Love Stories (1994-95) which had Gowariker playing the role of Mohan Bhargav While the film failed to perform at the box office, with time it has been called a classic. His next and last big hit was Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai -starrer 'Jodhaa Akbar'.