Pankaj Kapur is an Indian Theatre Actor, Film Actor, Television Actor, Film Director and Screenwriter who is best known for his work in Bollywood, Punjabi, Tamil and English films. He was born in Ludhiana, Punjab. He completed his engineering before enrolling in National School of Drama (NSD). He graduated in 1976, where he received the 'Best Actor Award'.
He made his film debut with Shyam Benegal's film Arohan (1982). Following that he played the role of Mahatma Gandhi's second secretary, Pyarelal, in the Richard Attenborough film Gandhi in 1982. Later, he dubbed for Ben Kingsley in the Hindi version of the film. His most acclaimed film roles to date have been that of Inspector P.K. in Raakh (1989), Dr. Dipankar Roy in Ek Doctor Ki Maut (1991) and Abba Ji in Vishal Bhardwaj's adaptation of Macbeth; Maqbool (2003), all three roles which got him National Film Awards.
As a director, Pankaj Kapur has done more than 74 serials and plays including 'Sahabji Biwiji Ghulamji', 'Wah Bhai Wah', 'Albert's Bridge', 'Panchvan Savaar', 'Kanak Di Balli', 'Drishtanth' and 'Mohandas B.A.L.L.B'. He is perhaps best remembered for the detective TV serial 'Karamchand', that ran from 1985 to 1988. The title role of Karamchand was played with a manic nuttiness by Pankaj Kapur. It was India's first detective TV serial. He also played the lead role of 'Musaddilal' in another popular comedy serial 'Office Office'.In 2006, he started to be seen again on TV in the TV series, Naya Office Office, a sequel to his previous series Office Office.
He ventured into direction with romantic drama Mausam (2011). He was also seen in Vishal Bharadwaj`s Matru Ki Bijli Ka Mandola (2013). Kapur was recently seen in the movie Finding Fanny (2014) and Shaandar (2015).