Early life

Seth was born in Patna, Bihar, British India to a Muslim Anglo-Indian mother and a Hindu father. His father was a biochemistry professor at Patna Medical College. He was educated at The Doon School, then furthered his education doing graduate studies in History at St Stephen's College. There, he honed his theatrical skills at the Shakespeare Society, before moving to England for further training. He attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in British repertory theatre.

Career

Seth's first break came in Peter Brook's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which toured in 1972. Seth entered feature films in Richard Lester's Juggernaut (1974), but because subsequent filmmakers only wanted Seth for ethnic roles, his career abruptly stalled.

Discouraged, he abandoned acting and returned to India, where he worked as an editor and journalist until the early 1980s, when Richard Attenborough asked Seth to play Jawaharlal Nehru in Gandhi (1982). Seth was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in the film. Seth also played Jawaharlal Nehru in Bharat Ek Khoj, a 53 episode series on Doordarshan in 1988.

Also in 1982, Seth played Indian author Victor Mehta in David Hare's biographical play, A Map of the World, which toured for several years in Australia, London, and New York. After the release of the multi-award-winning movie Gandhi (1982), Seth was much in demand, and when A Map of the World's Broadway run finished, his movie career took off. His work in 1984 included major roles in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and David Lean's A Passage to India. Following that he played a lead in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), and he played Pancks in Little Dorrit (1988).

Seth's film credits in the 1990s included roles in Not Without My Daughter (1991), Mississippi Masala (1991), Street Fighter (1994), and Harish Saluja's The Journey (1997). In 1993, he played the role of Haroon Amir in the television miniseries The Buddha of Suburbia, for which he was nominated a Royal Television Society award for "Best Actor - Male". In 1995, he played the role of Baba in Flight, for which he won the "Best Actor" award at the Sochi International Film Festival. In 1998, he played the leading role of Gustad Noble in the film Such a Long Journey, for which he won the Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role.

In 2001, Seth appeared in Monsoon Wedding, and he has continued working steadily in British and American films. In 2003 he played the lead in the American film Cosmopolitan, which was broadcast nationally on PBS. He also recently returned to mainstream Indian cinema with his role in the 2012 film, Ek Tha Tiger.

Personal life

Seth was formerly in a relationship with actress Lynette Davies. He was later married to author Pepita Seth, but they separated in the late 80s and divorced in 2004.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role
1974	Juggernaut	Azad
1982	Gandhi	Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
1984	Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom	Chattar Lal
	A Passage to India	Advocate Amrit Rao
1985	My Beautiful Laundrette	Papa
1988	Little Dorrit	Pancks
	Bharat Ek Khoj	As anchor and author
1989	Slipstream	George
	In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones	Y.D. Billimoria/Yamdoot
1990	Mountains of the Moon	Ben Amir
	1871	Lord Grafton
1991	Not Without My Daughter	Houssein
	Mississippi Masala	Jay
	London Kills Me	Dr. Bubba
1992	Electric Moon	Ranveer
	Stalin	Lavrentiy Beria
1993	The Buddha of Suburbia
1994	Street Fighter	Dhalsim
1995	Bideshi	Ajoy
	Solitaire for 2	Sandip Tamar
1997	The Journey	Kishan Singh
1998	Bombay Boys	Pesi Shroff
	Such a Long Journey	Gustad Noble
1999	The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Tales of Innocence	Sheikh Kamal
	Secret of the Andes	Don Benito
2000	Vertical Limit	Colonel Amir Salim
2001	Monsoon Wedding	Mohan Rai
	Wings of Hope	Shekar Khanna
	South West 9	Ravi
2003	Cosmopolitan	Gopal
2004	Spivs	Omar
2005	Frozen	Noyen
	Proof	Professor Bhandari
2006	Broken Thread	Dasa
2007	Guru	Chief of Enquiry Commission
2007	Amal	Suresh
2008	The Cheetah Girls: One World	Uncle Kamal Bhatia
2010	The Truth About Tigers	Narrator
2012	Ek Tha Tiger	Professor Kidwai
2016	City of Tiny Lights	Farzad Akhtar

Others

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Web Links
2003	Second Generation	Sharma (A Mentally Challenged bakery factory owner)	A British TV Serial	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0380693/fullcredits#cast
2015	Indian Summers	Darius Dalal	A British TV Serial	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3706628/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm

[ Source: Wikipedia ]