Rajendra Gupta (born 17 October 1947) is an Indian actor and director who has worked across film, television and theatre. An alumnus of the National School of Drama (NSD), he is widely recognised for his character roles in Hindi television serials of the 1990s and 2000s, as well as for his appearance in the 2001 film Lagaan.
| Born | 17 October 1947 |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation | Actor, director (film, television, theatre) |
| Education | National School of Drama, 1972 batch |
| Notable television roles | Pandit Jagannath in Chandrakanta; Jagat Narayan in Saaya; Adina Beg Khan in Maharaja Ranjit Singh; Kesri Narayan in Chidiya Ghar |
| Notable film role | Mukhiya of Champaner in Lagaan (2001) |
Gupta trained as an actor at the National School of Drama in New Delhi, graduating with the 1972 batch. The institution, established under the Sangeet Natak Akademi, has long served as a principal training ground for Indian stage and screen actors, and Gupta's grounding there informed his subsequent work in theatre, films and serial television.
Gupta became a familiar face on Indian television through several long-running serials:
In Ashutosh Gowariker's Lagaan (2001), Gupta played the Mukhiya, or village headman, of the fictional village of Champaner. The film, produced by Aamir Khan Productions, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He has also been part of the Hindi–Haryanvi film Rukke Padge, alongside actor Gaurav Prateek.
Across more than four decades of work, Gupta has been a representative example of the NSD-trained character actor whose career spans the parallel cinema era, the Doordarshan period of Indian television and later commercial satellite-channel productions. His recurring casting as patriarchal and authority figures—village headmen, pandits, fathers and noblemen—has made him a recognisable presence in Hindi serial drama.