Dinesh Thakur

Dinesh Thakur (1947 – 20 September 2012) was an Indian theatre director, actor in theatre, television and Hindi film, where most notably he appeared as one of the leads in Rajnigandha 1974 and directed by Basu Chatterjee, which won both Filmfare Best Movie Award and the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie. Dinesh Thakur was born in 1947 in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. He was the founder-director of ANK productions, a Mumbai-based theatre company, established in 1976.

Though he mainly appeared as character roles in Hindi films, as a screenwriter and story writer, he is known for writing the story and screenplay of Ghar (1978), which won him the 1979 Filmfare Best Story Award.

He died on 20 September 2012 due to kidney failure.

Dinesh Thakur did his graduation from Kirori Mal College (KMC), Delhi University, where was also part of the KMC dramatic society.

He made his film debut in 1971, with Mere Apne, written and directed by Gulzar, and followed it up with Basu Bhattacharya's Anubhav (1971) and later in Griha Pravesh (1979). 1974 saw him appearing in Basu Chatterjee's landmark in middle cinema, Rajnigandha (1974), alongside Amol Palekar and Vidya Sinha, which won the Filmfare Best Film Award, and went on appear in several films with both the directors in the coming years.

He established 'Ank Theatre Group' in 1976, dedicated solely to Hindi theatre in Mumbai; though it started flourishing in a big way with the advent on Jennifer Kapoor's Prithvi Theatre in 1978.