Roshan Seth

Biography

Roshan Seth (born in 1942 during the British Raj) is a British-Indian actor whose career has spanned Britain, the United States and India. Alongside film, he has worked extensively in theatre and television, and he became one of the most recognisable South Asian performers in English-language cinema in the closing decades of the twentieth century.

He was educated in India, studying history at St Stephen's College in Delhi, before training in London at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in the mid-1960s. He worked first in British television and repertory theatre, then made his feature debut in Juggernaut (1974), directed by Richard Lester. Filmmakers afterwards tended to offer him narrow ethnic roles, and his career stalled. Disheartened, he gave up acting and returned to India in 1977, where he worked as a journalist and editor of a quarterly journal.

His breakthrough came with Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (1982), in which he played Jawaharlal Nehru, a performance that earned him a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Earlier, David Hare's stage play A Map of the World had brought him back to acting. Offers followed quickly. In 1984 he appeared in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and David Lean's A Passage to India, and in 1985 he led My Beautiful Laundrette. In the 1990s he worked on Not Without My Daughter, Mississippi Masala and Street Fighter, and in 1998 he won the Genie Award for his lead role in the Canadian film Such a Long Journey. He appeared in Monsoon Wedding in 2001 and later returned to mainstream Indian cinema with Ek Tha Tiger (2012). He also played Nehru in the television series Bharat Ek Khoj (1988).

His screen manner is restrained and precise, and it has suited historical drama, comedy and action alike. He continues to work in British and American productions, and his role in Dumbo (2019) brought him to a broader audience.

Key films

• Gandhi (1982): He played Jawaharlal Nehru, the role that brought him his widest international recognition.
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984): He played Chattar Lal in the darker instalment of the franchise.
• A Passage to India (1984): He played Amit Rao in David Lean's adaptation of the E. M. Forster novel.
• My Beautiful Laundrette (1985): He led the film as Papa Hussein in Stephen Frears's comedy about a Pakistani family in London.