He made his screen debut with
Chashme Buddoor (1981). He is best known for his portrayal of Basesar Ram in the first Indian television serial
Hum Log (1984). After his big breakthrough with
Hum Log, he appeared in many commercially and critically acclaimed films like
Naache Mayuri (1986),
Bhrashtachar (1989),
Paappi Devataa (1995),
Dance of the Wind (1997),
Tarkieb (2000),
Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006),
Aaja Nachle (2007),
Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana (2012),
Pink (2016),
Blue Mountains (2017),
Jolly LLB 2 (2017) and
Manto (2018). Despite
Hindi films, Nagpal has appeared in five English language films and in an English television show like
The Perfect Murder (1988),
''The Curse of King Tut's Tomb (2006), The Last Days of the Raj
(2007), The Cheetah Girls: One World (2008), Tigers (2014) and The Far Pavilions'' (1984). In 2008, he played the lead role in a short film named
Good Night, which was written and directed by Geetika Narang. It won many accolades including Best Short Film Award at the MIAAC Film Festival in
United States. He is also a trained classical singer. He has performed many songs in theatre. In July 2006, he performed
marathi theatre songs with his
troupe on the occasion of silver jubilee celebration of Natya Shodh Sansthan at Shishir Manch. ==Personal life==