Shafi Inamdar received his early education at
Pangari Dapoli, Ratnagiri, MS and at St. Joseph's High School in Umerkhadi (
Dongri) in
Mumbai,
India, where he passed his S.S.C exam in 1958. He did his B.Sc. from
K.C College in 1963. He is particularly known for playing the common man's role. He has acted in numerous television shows, the most notable being
Kundan Shah's
Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, telecast on
Doordarshan in the 80s which made him a household name. The show went on to become so popular that it even started affecting the business of films, as it used to be aired late on Friday nights. The serial was such a hit that it ran for 61 episodes when generally a serial ran for a maximum of 25 weeks. One of his last performances on television was in
Teri Bhi Chup Meri Bhi Chup. He also played the role of an advocate in the Hindi film
Yeshwant, which was released after his death. He appeared in Ramesh Sippy's film
Saagar. Inamdar also directed a film titled
Hum Dono, starring
Nana Patekar,
Rishi Kapoor and
Pooja Bhatt. The film was a hit and he was considered a good director. From his schooling days he was interested in dramas and used to act and direct school plays. He participated in elocution competition and debates. This continued through his college days and intensified his desire to become a performing artist and a theatre personality. He started his career as an actor and director under the guidance of Gujarati theatre personality
Praveen Joshi. He directed and acted in about 30 one act plays in Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and English from 1973 to 1978. Later he joined the Indian National Theatre and
Indian People's Theatre Association where he met
Balraj Sahni and other members of Indian Theatre and learned the finer aspects of acting. The turning point in his career was
Ismat Chugtai’s play
Nila Kamra, which he staged as his first commercial production in Hindi. In the late seventies when the
Prithvi Theatre was started Shafi Inamdar got an opportunity to produce several Hindi plays that paved the way for establishing him as a theatre personality to be reckoned with. He founded his own theatre group Hum Productions in 1982 and directed, produced and acted in various plays. He also staged comedies and folk theatre based on human drama, Naag Mandala. In 1984 came India's most popular television sitcom
Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, a comedy serial starring Shafi Inamdar in the main lead as the character Ranjeet Verma,
Swaroop Sampat played his wife Renu while
Rakesh Bedi played his brother-in-law Raja. Shafi later acted in many other television serials like
Adha Sach, Aadha Jooth,
Mirza Ghalib and
Teri Bhi Chup meri Bhi Chup. In 1983, he made first appearance on the Hindi screen in the
Shashi Kapoor produced and
Govind Nihalani directed film
Vijeta, followed by the hard-hitting but popular
Ardh Satya. He acted in
B. R. Chopra films like
Aaj Ki Awaaz (for which he also won a nomination in
Filmfare award for Best Supporting Actor),
Awaam and
Dahleez, and became a regular with the B. R. film camp. One of his most notable efforts comes from the film
Krantiveer, in which he plays a TV anchor, a caricature of TV journalist
Rajat Sharma of
Aap Ki Adalat fame, and exposes a group of corrupted people regarding politics, law and police. His witty dialogues were appreciated.
Krantiveer was one of the highest-grossing movies of 1994. ==Personal life==