D. Santosh

There are very few performers who can carve a niche for themselves in the movie business as well as theatre. Born on September 26, 1976, D. Santosh is one such person. From a tender age, he was crazy about acting. Santosh completed his graduation in commerce stream from the Mumbai University. In 1998, to give his dreams a pedestal, he enrolled himself in Bhakti Barve Bhakti was an Indian actress to have worked in Guj >> Read More... and Amol Palekar's workshop followed by Pandit Satyadev Dubey's classes. Pandit Satyadev Dubey taught him without charging a single penny. Santosh then started to look for work in theatres. For some time, he worked with Makarand Deshpande Makarand Deshpande is an Indian actor and director >> Read More... on Vasanth Ka Teesra Youvan as a backstage artist there. Soon, Makarand and Santosh forged a tight bond and he became a part of Ansh Theatre Group, Makarand Deshpande's group.

Soon, his talent helped him bag the role of Rajguru, a revolutionary but forgotten Indian freedom fighter, in Rajkumar Santoshi's patriotic film named ‘The Legend of Bhagat Singh’. Ajay Devgn essayed the primary character of Bhagat Singh. Though the film didn't set the cash registers on fire, it did give a humongous boost to Santosh’s professional career. After ‘The Legend of Bhagat Singh’, he got to work with eminent entertainers and renowned filmmakers like Madhur Bhandarkar, Amitabh Bachchan, Ram Gopal Verma, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Aamir Khan and others. Santosh has worked in more than fifteen motion pictures and appeared in several TV commercials. In 2009, he again became the talk of the town after playing Giri Reddy, a risque, character who is obsessed with watching porn in Ranbir Kapoor and Gauhar Khan starrer and Shimit Amin's directorial, ‘Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year’.

Also, in his career, which has lasted for more ten years, he has managed to essay roles ranging from intense to outright comedy. In 2008, one of Santosh's projects named ‘WAAPSI The Return’ won the MAMI International Film Festival's Best Short Film award. In fact, Japan and L.A. International film festival also telecasted it. In the following year, Nokia Star Screen Awards nominated him for the Best Actor in comedy Role category. Though Santosh has dabbled in all visual mediums, he is most happy while performing on the stage shows and considers it as a riyaaz, which is an Urdu word for practice. He finds the medium more challenging than movies because Santosh gets to experiment and re-invent himself while doing plays. Also, he feels that an artist can connect most with the audience since they can see their reactions instantaneously.