Mumbai, Nov. 3: Sadashiv Amrapurkar, who played the iconic don Rama Shetty in Ardh Satya in a career spanning 300 movies, died today. He was 64.
“My father was suffering from a lung disease and passed away at 2.45am,” daughter Rima, a filmmaker, said.
Sadashiv, who once drove an auto, did plays in hometown Ahmednagar before debuting on screen with Marathi films.
But Ardh Satya was the high point of his career that also included comic turns and films in other languages including Bengali. “It was (author-playwright Vijay) Tendulkar who recommended Sadashiv,” Govind Nihalani, the director of the 1983 classic, said.
Sadashiv had invited Nihalani to watch Hands Up, a comedy. “It was the opposite of what I would cast him for. But by the time the play ended, I decided Sadashiv would play Rama Shetty,” Nihalani said of the award-winning film performance. Sadashiv also won honours as Maharani, a eunuch in the 1991 Sanjay Dutt-starrer Sadak.
Amitabh Bachchan, who acted alongside Sadashiv in many films, was among the many who paid tributes. “Waking up in Kolkata to the sad news of the passing away of Sadasiv Amrapurkar.. a colleague and a gifted talent…,” Bachchan, shooting for Piku in Calcutta, tweeted.
Sadashiv is survived by wife Sunanda and three daughters.