Aditya Shrivastava

Career

While pursuing graduation from Allahabad University, Aditya Srivastava did theatre plays at Sangeet Samiti, Civil lines, Allahabad. To hone his skills and pursue a career in acting, he moved to Delhi in 1989 and was involved in mostly theatre work at Sri Ram Center Of Performing Arts. Spotted by Shekhar Kapoor, he got his first break in the movie Bandit Queen, where he played Puttilal. After this he moved to Mumbai in 1995. He did many voice overs for promos and advertisements. He also played pivotal episodic roles in Byomkesh Bakshi, Rishtey and Aahat. Naya Daur, 9 Malabar Hills and Yeh Shaadi Nahi Ho Sakti had him in full-fledged and prominent roles. He took a break from television in 1997 to do films.

He was later offered C.I.D. in 1999, after B.P. Singh noticed him in Satya for playing Sr.Insp. Khandilkar, after Ashutosh Gowariker left to pursue direction. Although he had played as a criminal in C.I.D. episode "The Case of the Stolen Gun" by then. Initially reluctant, he signed in for just 26 episodes, which however extended later. He, today, is one of the pillars of the show. His character in the show is shown to be serious.

Meanwhile, he also did many films. He played Murgi, a guitarist in Anurag Kashyap's Paanch, which was shot in 2001, never released but got him approval as an actor by the film fraternity when Paanch was shown as the closing film in Osian's Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema in 2005. He was offered to play the male lead in Hansal Mehta's Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar but the role was later given to Manoj Bajpayee, leaving him to play another important character in the same movie named Tito, a Dubai returned entrepreneur. He even provided finance for the making of this movie, so kind of co-produced it. His first film as in playing the single male protagonist, "Dil se Pooch Kidhar Jaana Hai", though it was a commercial failure as production house decided to release it sans promotions, fetched him appreciation by critics for his performance. Kaalo is another movie with him in lead. He suffered from a shoulder injury in a bus accident whilst the shoots of Kaalo.

Internationally, he is more known for his work in films like Dil Se.., Mohandas, Dansh, Satya, Matrubhoomi, Black Friday and Gulaal, all of which ran successfully across the International Film Festivals Circuit and had him as critically acclaimed parallel lead. He did many other films and made his presence known in each one of them, as claimed by critics. He prefers non-conventional cinema as it brings depth to his acting, as said by him in an interview.

Aditya Srivastava has also shown his presence in south Indian Cinema playing important roles in movies like Aalwar and Naalai. His first Tamil film was Naalai(2006). He is also among those actors whose names are mentioned in Guinness Book of World Records and for shooting the longest uncut sequence,which was an episode named 'The Inheritance' of his show CID.

A song was recorded for CID episode (aired on 21 January 2012) which was a lullaby sung by Aditya Srivastava and his fellow actors Shivaji Satam and Daya Shetty. Aditya Srivastava, Shivaji Satam, Daya Shetty and Narendra Gupta also appeared in Kaun Banega Crorepati 2014 to raise money for charity.

After a hiatus owing to his tight schedule at television industry, he is back to big screen. As for 2016, his movies Julie 2 and Brina are due to release.

Personal life

Born in Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh, India) on 21 July 1968 to Mrs. and Mr. D.N. Srivastava, Aditya Srivastava is the eldest of four siblings(3 brothers and a sister). After completing his preliminary studies in Allahabad, he did his High School/Inter College from MGS Inter College, Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh as his father, a banker with State Bank of India, got transferred to Sultanpur, back in 1982. He completed his higher studies from Allahabad University before heading to Delhi in 1989 and later on to Mumbai in 1995 for some serious assignments in commercial theatre. While his family is settled in Allahabad, he puts up at Goregaon(E), Mumbai with his wife, Mansi Srivastava, and two daughters, Arushi and Adwika. In an interview to Joginder Tuteja, he stated he initially lived in Andheri when he came to Mumbai and later shifted to Goregaon.

Due to the cult popularity of his character 'Sr. Inspector Abhijeet' in the TV series 'CID',he is informally addressed as Abhijeet by the masses. Atul is his home name.

Filmography