Birthday Greetings to the veteran actor and theatre artist Kulbhushan Kharbanda, who turned 74 years today.

Veteran actor Kulbhushan Kharbanda is largely known for his character roles, often cast as the father or the wise old head.

Starting with Delhi-based theatre group Yatrik in the 1960s, he moved to films with Sai Paranjpye’s Jadu Ka Shankh in 1974, he worked in several parallel cinema films, before working in mainstream Bollywood.

He first got noticed in Shyam Benegal’s Nishaant (1974), with whom he went on to work in several more films including, Manthan (1976) and Bhumika: The Role (1977), Junoon (1978), and Kalyug (1980).

While Kulbhushan Kharbanda’s fame as a versatile actor earned him a celebrity status in countless Hindi films, still remembered as the villain Shaakal in ‘Shaan’ or the deceptive husband Inder in ‘Arth’, his sensitive, spontaneous and intelligent acting in theatre was well established long before his foray into mainstream and parallel cinema.

In this photo, he is with Shabana Azmi in Shyām Benegal’s Antarnaad.