Film After graduating from FTII, Alter headed straight to Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) and soon got his first break in the
Dev Anand starrer
Saheb Bahadur (1977), directed by
Chetan Anand. However, his first release was
Ramanand Sagar's
Charas. This was followed by roles in
Des Pardes,
Ram Bharose,
Hum Kisise Kum Nahin and
Parvarish. He dubbed for actor
Jeevan for the innocent person of the twin roles played by Jeevan in the film
Amar Akbar Anthony. Alter was fluent in Hindi and
Urdu, and was knowledgeable about Indian culture. He could also read Urdu and was fond of
Shayari. He also acted in the Hollywood movie
One Night with the King with
Peter O'Toole. In 1996 he appeared in the
Assamese film
Adajya, and in 2007 acted in
William Dalrymple's
City of Djinns alongside
Zohra Sehgal and
Manish Joshi Bismil. He also appeared in the solo play
Maulana and the film
Ocean of An Old Man. Alter played the role of a doctor in
Bheja Fry, a comedy movie starring
Rajat Kapoor. In April 2011 he acted in a short film
Yours, Maria directed by Chirag Vadgama, playing the lead role of Matthew Chacha in the movie. Alter lent his voice for the authorized audio autobiography of
Dr. Verghese Kurien, titled
The Man Who Made The Elephant Dance, which was released in 2012. Some of his most famous movie roles have been as Musa in
Vidhu Vinod Chopra's acclaimed crime drama
Parinda,
Mahesh Bhatt's blockbuster romance
Aashiqui, and Ketan Mehta's
Sardar, in which Alter essayed the role of Lord Mountbatten. His last film was
Hamari Paltan (2018).
Television Alter appeared in many Indian television series, including
Samvidhaan. In
Zabaan Sambhalke he played the role of a British writer, Charles Spencers, who lives in India and wants to learn the Hindi language. He acted in the TV series
Khamosh Sa Afsana (as a Husain Baba), telecast on
Doordarshan in 2014–15. In November 2014, he played
Sahir Ludhianvi in a stage production based on the life and work of the famous Urdu poet and film lyricist. He also played a schoolteacher in
Yahan Ke Hum Sikandar. Also, he appeared in Contiloe & Cinevistaas show
Ssshhhh...Koi Hai in 2002–03. He played Indian characters in Indian television series, such as the long-running
Junoon, in which he was the sadistic mob lord Keshav Kalsi. He anchored "Adabi Cocktail" in 2000 telecast on Urdu Television Network and interviewed Johny Walker, Naushad, TunTun, Hasan Kamaal, Adnan Sami, Jagdeep, Naqsh layalpuri and many more. Their first play was
Samuel Beckett's play
Waiting for Godot, which was staged at
Prithvi Theatre, Bombay, on 29 July 1979. He went on to appear in many other plays at the theatre, including an adaptation of
Vaikom Muhammad Basheer's
My Grandad Had an Elephant which was performed on 7 June 2011. He has also worked with the
New Delhi theatre group
Pierrot's Troupe. In
Ghalib In Delhi, he played the role of
Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib. He was the lead actor in "Once Upon A Time", a collection of five short stories presented as vignettes, directed by Sujata Soni Bali and co-starring prominent stage actor and TV personality Sunit Tandon. The production was last staged in Mumbai on 17 June 2017.
Writing and journalism Alter has written books including
The Longest Race,
Rerun at Rialto, and
The Best in the World. He was also a sports journalist with a special interest in cricket, a game on which he has written extensively in publications such as
Sportsweek,
Outlook,
Cricket Talk,
Sunday Observer,
Firstpost,
Citizen, and
Debonair. Alter was the first to
video interview Indian cricketer
Sachin Tendulkar in 1988. Alter played cricket for a film industry team MCC (Match Cut Club), which includes
Naseeruddin Shah,
Satish Shah,
Vishal Bhardwaj,
Aamir Khan,
Nana Patekar, Bhupinder Singh and Amarinder Sangha. In 1996, he was invited by friend Siraj Syed to Singapore, to do cricket commentary in Hindi, for Indian viewers, on the sports TV channel,
ESPN. ==Personal life==