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Roshan Seth (born 2 April 1942) is a British-Indian actor, writer and theatre director who has worked in the United Kingdom, United States and India. Audio interview with Seth on NPR's All Things Considered, 3 June 2004 He began his acting career in the early 1960s in the UK, but left acting the following decade and moved to India to work as a journalist. In the 1980s, he rose to prominence for his comeback performance as Jawaharlal Nehru in Richard Attenborough's Academy Awards-winning film Gandhi, which brought him a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and reignited his interest in acting.
He has since appeared in numerous British and American feature films and television programmes, with roles ranging from Chattar Lal in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Amit Rao in A Passage to India, Papa Hussein in My Beautiful Laundrette, patriarch Jay in Mississippi Masala and Dhalsim in . He won the Genie Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for the Canadian film Such a Long Journey. Other projects he has appeared include Bharat Ek Khoj, Not Without My Daughter, The Buddha of Suburbia, Vertical Limit, Monsoon Wedding, Proof, Ek Tha Tiger, Indian Summers and Dumbo.
Discouraged, Seth abandoned acting and returned to India in 1977, where he worked as a journalist and editor of the quarterly journal published by the India International Centre, Delhi. He took leave from this job after Richard Attenborough asked Seth to play Jawaharlal Nehru in Gandhi (1982). Seth was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in the film. Seth subsequently also played Jawaharlal Nehru in Bharat Ek Khoj, a 53-episode series on Doordarshan in 1988.
David Hare met Seth in Delhi in 1982, and asked him to play author Victor Mehta in Hare's biographical play A Map of the World. Seth left his editing job and returned to acting. A Map of the World toured for several years in Australia, London, and New York. After the release of the multi-award-winning movie Gandhi (1982), Seth was much in demand, and when A Map of the World's Broadway run finished, his movie career took off. His work in 1984 included major roles in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and David Lean's A Passage to India. Following that he played a lead in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), and he played Pancks in Little Dorrit (1988).
Seth's film credits in the 1990s included roles in Not Without My Daughter (1991), Mississippi Masala (1991), Street Fighter (1994), and Harish Saluja's The Journey (1997). In 1993, he played the role of Haroon Amir in the television miniseries The Buddha of Suburbia, for which he was nominated a Royal Television Society award for "Best Actor – Male". In 1995, he played the role of Baba in Flight, for which he won the "Best Actor" award at the Sochi International Film Festival. In 1998, he played the leading role of Gustad Noble in the film Such a Long Journey, for which he won the Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role.
In 2001, Seth appeared in Monsoon Wedding and he has continued working steadily in British and American films. In 2003 he played the lead in the American film Cosmopolitan, which was broadcast nationally on PBS. He also recently returned to mainstream Indian cinema with his role in the 2012 film, Ek Tha Tiger.
| + List of performances by Roshan Seth in film | |||
| Nominated- BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role | |||
| 1989 | |||
| Lord Grafton | |||
| 1992 | |||
| Short film | |||
| Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role | |||
| 1999 | |||
| 2004 | |||
| Chief of Enquiry Commission | |||
| Short film | |||
| Professor Kidwai | |||
| 2018 | Boogie Man | Rupesh | |
| + List of performances and appearances by Roshan Seth in television | |||
| 1964 | Crossroads | Dr. Ahmed | |
| 1966 | Public Eye | Soondra | Episode: "Tell Me About the Crab" |
| 1967 | No Hiding Place | Kuldip Mahal | Episode: "The Game" |
| Theatre 625 | Vinay | Episode: "55 Columns" | |
| 1968–1969 | The Wednesday Play | Ben Scalfe / Student | 2 episodes |
| 1969 | Strange Report | Jamal | Episode: "Report 3424: Epidemic – A Most Curious Crime" |
| 1971 | The Doctors | Bingi Singh | Episode 1.88 |
| 1972 | To Encourage the Others | Jazwon | Television film |
| 1973 | The Protectors | Persuer | Episode: "...With a Little Help From My Friends" |
| 1975 | Six Days of Justice | Mr. Wood | Episode: "Belonging" |
| General Hospital | Dr. Narasjee | Episode: "The White Rajah" | |
| 1976 | Play for Today | Dr. Milma | Episode: "The Peddler" |
| Centre Play | Anil Roy | Episode: "Commonwealth Season: India – Apply, Apply, No Reply" | |
| Crown Court | Farooq Rana | Episode: "A Matter of Honour: Part 1" | |
| Gangsters | Episode: "Incident Four" | ||
| 1987 | Television film | ||
| Emmerdale | Howard | 2 episodes | |
| 1988 | First Born | Dr. Antony Graham | Episode 1.2 |
| Deadline | The Emir of Hawa | Television film | |
| Bharat Ek Khoj | Jawaharlal Nehru | Main cast; Series 1 | |
| 1989 | In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones | Y.D. Billimoria / Yamdoot | Television film |
| 1992 | Casualty | Sujit Pratkash | Episode: "Rates of Exchange" |
| Screen One | Mr. Humphrey | Episode: "Running Late" | |
| Stalin | Lavrentiy Beria | Television film | |
| 1993 | The Buddha of Suburbia | Haroon Amir | |
| 1994 | Siren Spirits | Ajoy | Miniseries; 2 episodes |
| 1996 | The Bill | Ahmed Seth | Episode: "Blood Brothers" |
| Dangerfield | Aslam Choudhury | Episode: "Treasure" | |
| Dr. Tenshin Sharafi | |||
| 1997 | Turning World | Dr. Khan | 3 episodes |
| Flight | Baba | Television film | |
| Food for Ravens | Nehru | ||
| Grandpa Chatterjee | Grandpa Chatterjee | ||
| 1998 | Iqbal | Ulla Khasi | |
| 1999 | The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles | Sheikh Khamal | Episode: "Tales of Innocence" |
| 2001 | Holby City | Kushara Bandara | Episode: "Tip of the Iceberg" |
| 2003 | Spooks | Fazul Azzam | Episode: "Nest of Angels" |
| Second Generation | Mohan | Television film | |
| Silent Witness | Afzal Khan | Episode: Answering Fire | |
| Cosmopolitan | Gopal | Television film | |
| 2004 | Blue Murder | Jameel Khan | Episode: "Fragile Relations" |
| 2005 | The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag | Pundit | Television film |
| 2007 | The Last Days of the Raj | Jawaharlal Nehru | |
| 2008 | Uncle Kamal Bhatia | ||
| 2015–2016 | Indian Summers | Darius Dalal | Main cast; Series 1–2 |
| 2017 | Diana and I | Uncle Zaheer | Television film |
| 2019 | Beecham House | Emperor Shah Alam | Main cast; Series 1 |
| 2021 | Behind Her Eyes | Dr. Sharma |
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