Roshan Taneja, the man behind the treasure trove of talent in Bollywood including the likes of Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Jaya Bachchan, Anil Kapoor and Shatrughan Sinha, has passed away at 87.

“My father passed away last night at 9.30 pm in his sleep at home after prolonged illness,” the acting guru’s son Rohit Taneja said. Roshan Taneja was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in February this year. He is survived by his wife Mithika and sons Rohit and Rahul. His cremation was held at the electric crematorium in Santa Cruz West. It was attended by Anil, Govinda, Ratna Pathak Shah, Kanwaljit Singh and Gufi Paintal.

Roshan Taneja’s passion for acting took him to New York at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre to train under the famous Sanford Meisner & Sydney Pollack, who went on to become an Academy Award-winning director.

Known to many as the ‘pioneer of method acting’ in India, Roshan Taneja was held in high regard in the Hindi film industry. He had been training talent since the 1960s, first at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune and later at his private school in Mumbai, the Roshan Taneja School of Acting. At FTII, he founded the acting department in 1963.