Ashish Vidyarthi

Ashish Vidyarthi was born in Tellicherry in Kerala in 1962 to Reba Vidyarthi, a renowned Kathak dancer and Govind Vidyarthi, his father, a Malayali theatre personality. He moved to Delhi in 1969 and joined the Delhi Public School, where he won acclaim for his performances as an actor in both dramatic and comedic roles. He passed his Class XII exams in 1980, after which he attended SV College and earned a BA in History. He began acting in minor roles and got his break in an S.V Paranjpe serial. He went on to act in a number of minor serials in regional languages and in appeared in Ghutan, a major Hindi serial in the 1990s. His film career began with a supporting role in Kannada Film Anand with Shivraj Kumar. Later, he starred with Suresh Gopi in Hijack (1991). His break in Hindi films came with Naajayaaz and Baazi. He soon began appearing as atypical (by Bollywood standards) villains, spewing vitrolic dialogue rather than as the "classy" Pankaj Kapur-type villains who were becoming the norm. As a result most of his films were not top of the line and were more of standard commercial masala fare. He did have some hits like Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai. He also acted in supporting roles in some films such as Ek Rishta or a comic villain in Jodi No.1 and Haseena Maan Jayegi. As the film industry dried up in Mumbai, Vidyarthi received offers from South India. He soon appeared as a villain in films such as CID Moosa with Malayali superstar Dileep, Baba as Ippo Ramasami with Rajnikanth, Ghilli and Azhagiya Tamil Magan with Joseph Vijay, Pokiri and Athidhi in Telugu with Mahesh Babu.

He got married to Actress Rajoshi and has son Mowgli. Actress Rajoshi happens to be daughter of yester year actress Shakuntala Barua.

Prepared by: Dr. Susie Pazhavarical