Denzil Smith is a versatile Anglo-Indian actor, known for playing the role of Jinnah in Viceroy’s House (2017), Brahman Naman (2016), The Lunchbox (2013), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015) and the television series P.O.W. Bandi Yuddh Ke (2016-17) for which he won the Indian Television Academy Award Best Actor in a Negative Role (2017). Based in Mumbai, Smith began his acting career on stage in 1988 with Pearl Padamsee’s Les Liaisons Dangereuse where he first worked with Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak, becoming a member of Shah’s Motley Productions. By 1998, he also began working extensively with Lilette Dubey’s PrimeTime Theatre in productions such as On a Muggy Night in Mumbai, Sammy, August: Osage County and “Gauhar” about the life of Gauhar Jaan. These plays toured both India and various cities in North America, UK and Europe, South-East Asia and Australia. In 2007, Smith joined All Star Artists for the Broadway style musical production The Merchants of Bollywood – in the lead role of the grandfather, Shantilal, and then later a double role of narrator and Bollywood director Tony Bakshi. There were 600 shows between 2007 and 2009 in the UK, Europe and Malaysia. He returned for a run in the UK and Lebanon in 2016, then again in Kuwait in 2018. One of Smith’s early films was Mango Soufflé (2002), which was promoted as “first gay male film from India.” He then went on to play a range of characters from a Tibetan Monk in Paap (2003), Thai gangster against Amitabh Bachchan in Ek Ajnabee (2005), professor, to Manipuri militant in Disney’s Jagga Jasoos (2017) and politician in Telegu film Naa Peru Surya Na Illu India (2018). More recently, Smith has become more active on the small screen with P.O.W. Bandi Yuddh Ke (2016-17) in the role of Lala, Made in Heaven (2019, S1, E6), The Good Karma Hospital (2019, S3, 22), Netflix’s Delhi Crime (2019, S1) and as the Maharaja of Kalyan in the upcoming British series Beecham House (2019).