Shafi Inamdar 99 Views
When Shafi Inamdar suddenly died at the age of 50 on March 13th, 1996, almost 24 years ago, the nation was shocked. He was the everyday, next door friend whom you met on the TV sets, keeping you laughing in one of India’s best known TV comedy serials, Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi.
Born in Pangari, a small town in Ratnagiri District of Maharashtra, Shafi was educated in Mumbai and from acting and directing school plays, he moved up to acting and directing plays in Gujarati, Marathi and English between 1973 and 1978. He joined Indian National Theatre and IPTA and came in contact with Balraj Sahani, who taught him some of the finer points of play acting. His production of Ismat Chugtai’s Nila Kamra was a landmark in his theatre career and later he got an opportunity to produce plays for the Prithvi Theatre. In 1982 he formed his own theatre group Hum Productions and one of their major production was Nagamandala.
His first big break in cinema came from Govind Nihalani who cast him in Vijeta and almost immediately in Ardh Satya. This was in 1983. He subsequently became a regular in BR Films Production and even won a Filmfare nomination in Aaj ki Awaz. He even directed Hum Dono which was not only a hit but he won a lot of appreciation as a director.
In 1984, he was cast in Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi and the comedy serial was a runaway success. Against a general run of 25 weeks for a successful serial, it ran for 61 episodes and made Shafi Inamdar a household name all over the country.
