Amol Palekar's birthday: Take a look at the fruitful career of the 'Gol Maal' actor

Actor and producer Amol Palekar is celebrating his birthday today. He is well known for his work in Marathi and Hindi cinema and has also done a lot of theatre shows. Some of his famous work is Rajnigandha, Chhoti Si Baat and Gol Maal. Read more about the actor's life in the article below: 

Also Read | Amol Palekar's birthday: Take this quiz to test your knowledge about the 'Gol Maal' actor

Amol Palekar's early life and childhood

Amol was born on November 24, 1944, in Bombay. It is widely reported that he was very artistic as a child and wanted to become a painter. He was the only son born to Kamalakar and Suhasini Palekar. Many media outlets reported that Amol's family was very poor when he was a child. He studied fine arts at Sir JJ School of Arts and kick-started his career as a painter. He once added in his interview with FilmyKeeda that for him, painting was going back to home. 

Also Read | Is 'Life of Pi' movie based on a true story? All about the adventure drama film

Amol Palekar's career

Amol Palekar further enhanced his career with theatre acting. Satyadev Dubey Theater is where he used to work when he got noticed. His first movie was Bajiraocha Beta in 1969. The film did well and brought much fame for the actor. After that, he did Rajnigandha in 1974. The film was directed by Basu Chatterjee. It cast Amol Palekar as Sanjay, Vidya Sinha as Deepa Kapoor, Dinesh Thakur as Naveen and Veena Goud as Deepa's sister-in-law. The film did very well and won the actor many awards. 

Then in 1985, he started trying his hand at directing. His first famous film as a director was Ankahee. It cast Amol Palekar as Devkinandan Chaturvedi Nandu, Deepti Naval as Indumati Mishra 'Indu' and Shriram Lagoo as Jyotibhaskar Pandit Satyanarayan Chaturvedi. The film also did quite well and won him many awards. He also did many other regional movies like Kanneshwara Rama, which was a Kannada movie. The film was directed by M. S. Sathyu and produced by the Sharadha Movie Productions banner. It cast Anant Nag as Kanneshwara Rama, Shabana Azmi as Malli and Amol Palekar as Dacoit Chenneera. 

Also Read | Mark Calaway brother: Does The Undertaker have any siblings in real life?

Amol Palekar's TV shows

 Apart from his movies, Amol was also seen in many TV shows. His most famous show was Kareena Kareena (2004). The show had many celebs appear on it like Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, and Rajeev Khandelwal. Take a look at a few more shows:

• Kachchi Dhoop – 1987
• Naqab – 1988
• Paoolkhuna – 1993
• Mrignayanee – 1991

Also Read | Is 'Pihu' based on real story? Who was Pihu's story based on in real life?

Amol Palekar's family 

Amol Palekar's first wife was Chitra Palekar. They both got married in 1969 and got divorced in 2001. Not much is known about this relationship. He then got married to Sandhya Gokhale as soon as he got divorced from his first wife. The couple is still together. 

Amol Palekar's facts 

• Amol's film Dhyaas Parva won the National Award for Best Film on Family Welfare
• Amol won the best actor award for his film Gol Maal. 
• The actor has given his voice to an HIV/AIDS education campaign.
• His film Paheli was India's official entry to the 78th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.