On Teacher’s Day, discover the mentors who help actors prepare for some of their most memorable performances

“To grasp the full significance of life is the actor’s duty, to interpret it is his problem, and to express it his dedication.” Legendary actor Marlon Brando once remarked. While actors struggle to understand their craft through the lens of their lives, it is the mentors who help them through the process.
This Teacher’s Day, discover the role professional acting guidance has played in Indian cinema, and meet the established acting coaches who have spent years nurturing and moulding talent, helping actors find the emotional depth, discipline and confidence needed to bring a character to life.

1. Atul Mongia

Atul Mongia is widely regarded as the pioneer of acting workshops in Hindi cinema, having introduced structured actor preparation to the industry with Love Sex Aur Dhokha in 2009.
For Atul, acting is less about doing and more about being. He teaches it as the study of human behaviour, working with actors on the relationships, contradictions and inner life that make a character feel truly human, drawing not from technique alone but from an actor’s own strengths, vulnerabilities and truth. Over two decades, he has helped shape some of India’s finest performers, including Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Vicky Kaushal and Anushka Sharma, an experience deepened further by his own work as a storyteller, as creator, showrunner, head writer and co-director of the acclaimed Netflix series Mai (2022). Today, through The Artist Collective, he continues to guide the next generation of actors toward a deeper, more honest connection with their craft and themselves.

2. Barry John

Barry John has spent decades teaching actors to treat performance as a craft rather than just an instinct. The theatre director and acting coach has trained several performers who went on to build careers across Indian and international cinema, including Shah Rukh Khan, Manoj Bajpayee, Varun Dhawan, Dulquer Salmaan and Freida Pinto. His training places equal importance on technique, confidence, voice and the ability to find something truthful within a character. John’s contribution to acting education was recognised with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and, more recently, the Padma Shri in 2025.

3. Atul Mathur

Atul Mathur brings three decades of theatre experience to his work as an acting coach. Associated with the Hindi theatre group ANK, he has acted in and directed several plays while also building a career across films, television and OTT. Through his acting classes, Mathur has worked with performers at different stages of their careers, including Vicky Kaushal, Varun Dhawan, Arjun Kapoor, Divya Khosla Kumar and Eijaz Khan. He encourages actors to understand the emotional world of a character and draw from observation, empathy and personal experience. That combination of theatre discipline and practical screen experience has made him a sought-after mentor for committed actors.

4. Neeraj Kabi

Neeraj Kabi approaches acting training with the intensity of a physical discipline. His workshops push performers to work on both the body and the mind, using movement, voice exercises, improvisation and emotional work to take them beyond surface-level performance. Kabi has also trained actors including Sushant Singh Rajput and Rasika Dugal, bringing his own experience as a stage and screen performer into the classroom. His philosophy is built around preparation and the ability to stay present even when a scene becomes demanding. For Kabi, an actor needs the resilience of a soldier-someone who can keep going when the circumstances become difficult. His training encourages performers to examine their characters deeply while developing the physical and emotional control needed to make those choices believable on stage or screen.

5. Roshan Taneja

Roshan Taneja’s biggest contribution was not just the number of actors he trained, but the way he changed the idea of acting education in India. As the founder of the acting department at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), he helped establish the belief that acting could be studied, practised and taught as a serious craft. His students included Anil Kapoor, Aamir Khan, Ranbir Kapoor and Rani Mukerji among several others. Taneja placed importance on observation, discipline and emotional honesty, encouraging actors to understand what lies beneath a character rather than simply perform the lines. His influence therefore goes beyond individual careers. He helped give professional acting training a bigger place within Indian cinema, and that remains perhaps his most lasting contribution.