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Known for his subtle mannerism, the versatile Sadashiv Amrapurkar played varied villainous and comic roles in Indian cinema enthralling the audience with his 'unique' style in a career spanning over three decades.
The ailing actor, who died at a hospital here this morning at the age of 64, played iconic character roles including a ruthless eunuch in Sadak, a villain in Ardh Satya and a selfish father in Ishq with an effortless ease.
Ironically, while he would instill fear with his negative roles on-screen, the actor was a true gentleman in real life and involved in many social activities.
Born as Ganesh Kumar Narwode to an auto driver in Nasik in 1956, he adopted the name Sadashiv in 1974. Fondly known as Tatya in his family and friend circle, Amrapurkar grew up in Ahmednagar with his parents and a younger brother.
Right from his younger days, Amrapurkar was into acting and was part of several plays in school and college.
He was a trained singer but was advised that his highly nasal baritone would prevent him from achieving fame - so at the age of 21, Sadashiv migrated to theatre and the stage.
He acted in more than 50 plays and also began to act in minor roles in Marathi cinema until in 1979.
In 1981-82, Amrapurkar acted in a Marathi stage play Hands-Up! alongside stage actors Avinash Masurekar and Bhakti Barve-Inamdar. This play was a super-hit and Amrapurkar was noticed by director Govind Nihalani who was searching for an artiste to play the central negative character in his movie Ardh Satya.
The movie went on to be a success and Amrapurkar's acting was appreciated. His style of dialogue delivery was considered unique as compared to the popular Hindi movie villains in those days.
After Ardh Satya, Amrapurkar starred in small roles in films such as Purana Mandir, Nasoor, Muddat, Veeru Dada, Jawani, and Farishtay.
