Sayaji Shinde (Marathi pronunciation:
">əjaːd͡ʒiː ʃin̪d̪eː born 13 January 1959) is an Indian actor who has acted in
Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
**Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...
,
Telugu,
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
People, culture and language
* Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka
** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...
,
Kannada
Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...
,
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...
,
English,
Gujarati,
Hindi
Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
, and
Bhojpuri
Bhojpuri may refer to:
* Bhojpuri language, an Indo-Aryan language of India and Nepal
* Bhojpuri grammar, grammatical rules of the language
* Bhojpuri nouns, nouns of the language
* Bhojpuri people, people who speak the language
* Bhojpuri region ...
films.
Sayaji started his acting career in 1978 in
Marathi Plays one-act plays. His performance in a 1987 Marathi play titled ''Zulva'' was very well received, and since then he started gaining popularity among the circle of stalwarts. Later, he moved on to
Marathi cinema
Marathi cinema is the segment of Cinema of India, Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Marathi language, which is widely spoken in the state of Maharashtra. It is based out of Mumbai. It is the oldest film ind ...
and then started acting in other languages.
He won
Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Marathi for ''Aboli'' (1995) film, for his reprising debutant role "Sayaji".
Sayaji Shinde joined the Ajit Pawar-led
Nationalist Congress Party
The Nationalist Congress Party is one of the List of political parties in India#State parties, state parties in India and is one of the major political parties in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, Maharashtra with a recognised state party statu ...
(NCP) on 11 October 2024 ahead of
2024 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Elections in the presence of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister
Ajit Pawar
Ajit Anantrao Pawar (Marathi pronunciation: �d͡ʒit̪ pəʋaːɾ born 22 July 1959) is an Indian politician serving as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra along with Eknath Shinde under Devendra Fadnavis since 5 December 2024. He is t ...
, NCP working president
Praful Patel, and State unit chief
Sunil Tatkare.
Background
Born in a farmer's family in a small village named Sakharwadi in Satara District in
Maharashtra
Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...
, Sayaji completed his bachelor's degree in arts in
Marathi language
Marathi (; , 𑘦𑘨𑘰𑘙𑘲, , ) is a Classical languages of India, classical Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by Marathi people in the Indian state of Maharashtra and is also spoken in Goa, and parts of Guj ...
, and started his career in 1978 while studying in college as a night watchman for Maharashtra Government's Irrigation Department for a meager pay of Rs. 165 per month. During his service as a watchman, he developed an interest in theatre and his passion for acting drew him to the theatre and films. After his initial struggling years, he moved to
Mumbai
Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...
.
Career
Sayaji pursued acting first through Marathi theatre. He started doing one-act plays in 1978, and went on to get noticed in plays like ''Zulva'' (1987), ''One Room Kitchen'' (1989) and ''Amchya Ya Gharat'' (1991). He then moved to acting in Marathi cinema.
The co-actor
Manoj Bajpayee
Manoj Bajpayee (born 23 April 1969), also transliterated as Manoj Bajpai, is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Hindi cinema. He is the recipient of numerous accolades including four National Film Awards, four Filmfare Awards, and two ...
who saw an article on the actor in a leading national daily and recommended him to
Ram Gopal Varma
Penmetsa Ram Gopal Varma (born 7 April 1962), often referred to by his initials RGV, is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer, primarily known for his work in Hindi cinema, Hindi and Telugu cinema, Telugu films.**
*
* Varma has dir ...
in his 1999 action crime Hindi film ''
Shool
''Shool'' () is a 1999 Indian Hindi-language action crime film directed by Eeshwar Nivas. Written and produced by Ram Gopal Varma, it portrays the politician-criminal nexus and the criminalization of politics in Bihar and its effect on the li ...
''. Sayaji had a career breakthrough with
Gnana Rajasekaran
Gnana Rajasekaran (born 23 January 1953) is an Indian filmmaker, screenwriter, playwright and Retired IAS Officer. His directional debut was '' Mogamul'' (1994) won the Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director. His other works ...
's 2000 Tamil film ''
Bharathi'', where he played
Subramania Bharati, the popular poet and writer from
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...
.
He then went on to appear in Bollywood movies like ''
Vaastu Shastra'' (2003), ''
Sarkar Raj'' (2008), and ''
Sanju
''Sanju'' is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language biographical comedy drama film directed and edited by Rajkumar Hirani, written by Hirani and Abhijat Joshi and produced by Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra under the banners Rajkumar Hirani Films and Vi ...
'' (2018).
Sayaji Shinde has acted in a wide range of films, portraying diverse characters, including villains, supporting roles, and occasionally, comedic roles.
Filmography
Telugu
Marathi
Hindi
Tamil
Kannada
Malayalam
Bhojpuri
English
Television
Web series
Production
He produced couple of
Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
**Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...
movies. Sayaji helped
Nagesh Bhonsle to produce the Marathi film ''
Goshta Choti Dongraevadhi''. He also produced the
Makarand Anaspure's ''Dambis'' (2011).
Awards and nominations
*1995 : Won:
Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Marathi - Aboli for his reprising role "Sayaji"
*2001:Nominated:
Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for ''
Kurukshetra
Kurukshetra () is a city and administrative headquarters of Kurukshetra district in the Indian state of Haryana. It is also known as Dharmakshetra ("Realm of duty") and as the "Land of the Bhagavad Gita".
Legends
According to the Puranas ...
''
*2000:Nominated:
Filmfare Best Villain Award for ''
Shool
''Shool'' () is a 1999 Indian Hindi-language action crime film directed by Eeshwar Nivas. Written and produced by Ram Gopal Varma, it portrays the politician-criminal nexus and the criminalization of politics in Bihar and its effect on the li ...
''
*2006:Nominated:
Filmfare Award for Best Villain – Telugu for ''
Andhrudu''
*2009:Nominated:
Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor – Telugu for ''
Arundhati''
*2023:Won:
Maharashtracha Favourite Kon? Award for Favourite Villain for ''
Ghar Banduk Biryani''
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shinde, Sayaji
Indian male film actors
Male actors in Tamil cinema
Male actors in Telugu cinema
Male actors in Hindi cinema
Male actors in Marathi cinema
Male actors in Kannada cinema
Marathi film directors
Living people
1959 births
Male actors from Maharashtra
People from Satara district
Screen Awards winners
Male actors in Malayalam cinema
20th-century Indian male actors
21st-century Indian male actors