Amol Palekar (born 24 November 1944) is an Indian actor, director and producer of Hindi and Marathi cinema.
He studied fine arts at the Sir JJ School of Arts, Mumbai, and commenced his artistic career as a painter. As a painter, he had seven one-man exhibitions and participated in many group shows. However, Palekar is better known as a stage and film actor. He has been active in the avant garde theatre in India in Marathi and Hindi theatre as an actor, director and producer since 1967. His contribution to the modern Indian theatre is often overshadowed by his popularity as a lead actor in Hindi films.
As a film actor, he was most prominent in the 1970s. His image as a "boy next door" contrasted with the larger-than-life heroes prevalent at that time in Indian cinema. He received one Filmfare award and six State awards as Best Actor. His performances in regional language films in Marathi, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada fetched him critical acclaim as well. He decided not to act after 1986 in order to concentra
