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Alok Nath

Alok Nath is an Indian actor whose screen career has moved between film and television. Born in Mumbai on July 10, 1950, he made his film debut in Richard Attenborough’s 1982 English- and Hindi-language production Gandhi, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Television gave Nath one of his defining early roles. In the 1986 soap opera Buniyaad, he played a character whose life extended to the age of 80 by the end of the series. The show took the country by storm, and the part demonstrated Nath’s ability to inhabit a character far older than himself. He later appeared in Rishtey, which aired from 1999 to 2001, and in Star Plus serials including Sapna Babul Ka...Bidaai, Yahaaan Main Ghar Ghar Kheli and Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai. An unusual second wave of public attention arrived away from the screen. In December 2013, jokes and memes built around the kinds of characters Nath had played began spreading rapidly on social media. The phenomenon became the subject of a popular case study, The Curious Case of Alok Nath - Why did Alok Nath Trend on Twitter, released on January 4, 2014. Nath said that he liked most of the jokes, showing a willingness to take his unexpected online persona in stride. In 2018, during the Indian Me Too movement, writer-producer Vinda Nanda accused Nath of rape, while multiple other women accused him of sexual misconduct. Mumbai Police opened an investigation, which was closed in 2019 due to a lack of evidence. Nath and his wife sued Nanda for defamation. Across the work represented here, Nath’s career is marked by an early film debut, prominent television roles and the rare experience of seeing his screen persona take on a life of its own online.