Anupam Shyam Ojha, who passed away on August 9 due to multiple organ failure, had breathed life into myriad roles in his three-decade career in showbiz. The veteran actor became a household name, courtesy his menacing act of patriarch Thakur Sajjan Singh in 'Mann Ki Awaaz Pratigya 2'. For Mohit Malik, who played his illegitimate son in the drama, sharing screen space with Shyam was a matter of honour.  

“By the time I joined Pratigya, he was a big star. I was nervous about my first scene with him, but he put me at ease,” recounts Malik. He says that the veteran actor had a brilliant command over the language. “I loved the ethics he had towards the craft. Observing him on set was sheer joy.”

After the show wrapped up in 2012, the actor had the good fortune to share screen space with him again in Doli Armaano Ki, where Shyam played the role of Garjan Singh Rathore. Malik’s admiration for the senior actor is evident as he says that he would become one with the character even before the cameras rolled. “As soon as Shyam ji finished his make-up, he would become the character physically and mentally. We’d discuss his craft and the roles he played over lunch every day. There was so much to learn from his experiences.”

Besides being a known face in television, Shyam had appeared in several Hindi films. The actor was first noticed in Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen (1994), in which he played a mediator between the dacoits and the Thakurs. Having worked on Shyam Benegal’s television show Amaravati Ki Kathayein in 1995, he subsequently featured in a supporting role in the auteur’s film, Sardari Begum. He went on to star in Dil Se, Satya and Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, among other films.