The 1980s is believed to be the era when the parallel cinema movement started and picked up pace. Popularly known as arthouse movies, these films provided a break from the larger-than-life masala action movies of the era. They narrated more grounded stories with deep philosophical themes. Many actors became faces of arthouse cinema. One of them was the late actor Farooq Shaikh. He did a lot of memorable films in the late 70s and 80s like Chashme Baddoor, Gaman, Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Umrao Jaan and Rang Birangi, all of which fell into the parallel film genre. Farooq Shaikh attended St Mary’s School in Bombay and then graduated from St Xavier’s College. Although he wanted to be an actor from a young age, his father wanted his son to be a lawyer like himself. To please his father, Farooq studied law at the Siddharth College of Law and followed his father’s footsteps into the profession. Farooq Shaikh’s legal career was extremely short-lived and he soon decided to turn towards theatre, much to the chagrin of his father. Later in his career, his father became supportive of his decision.
In the year 1973, he entered the world of films with actor Balraj Sahni’s film Garam Hawa. He received widespread recognition from the film Bazaar. He also did some commercial films as well. He is known to have starred as the lead in Salman Khan’s first film. A year before Salman made his debut as a lead actor in Maine Pyar Kiya, he appeared in a supporting role in the film Biwi Ho To Aisi, starring Farooq Shaikh.
Farooq Shaikh was known for his great onscreen pairing with actresses Deepti Naval and Shabana Azmi. Farooq Shaikh died of a heart attack on December 27, 2013, aged 65. His last film role was as Ranbir Kapoor’s father in the movie Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. Two of his films, Youngistaan and Children of War, were released posthumously after his death.
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