Piyush Mishra

His acting breakthrough came in his second year at NSD, when German director, Fritz Bennewitz (1926–95), directed him in the title role in Hamlet and introduced him to acting technique.

Piyush Mishra (born as Priyakant Sharma; 13 January 1963) is an Indian actor, singer, lyricist, playwright, musician and screenwriter.

Mishra was born on 13 January 1963 in Gwalior to Kumar Sharma.

He grew up as Priyakant Sharma and was adopted by his father's eldest sister Taradevi Mishra, who had no children.

Later, his family moved into his aunt's house to ease financial burden.

His parents admitted him to Carmel Convent School, Gwalior thinking that his education in a convent will help him excel in academics but it was activities like singing, painting and acting which appealed to him.

Piyush later moved to Gwalior's JC Mills Higher Secondary School.

However, living in the authoritative household of his aunt, developed a rebellious streak in him, which showed up in his first poem, Zinda ho haan tum koi shak nahin (Yes you are alive; of this there is no doubt), he wrote in class 8th.

Later, while studying in class 10, he even filed an affidavit in the district court and changed his name to one his choice to Piyush Mishra.

Around this time, he began to be drawn to theatre – it was at places like Kala Mandir and Rangshri Little Ballet Troupe in Gwalior that his talent for the medium was first identified.

In spite of the appreciation he was beginning to receive in the theatre circles, his family kept insisting he concentrate on his studies.

He took the entrance test to the National School of Drama, New Delhi in 1983, not with any particular desire to study but to get out of Gwalior.

Mishra grew up in Gwalior, and graduated from National School of Drama, Delhi in 1986.

Thereafter, he started his career in Hindi theatre in Delhi.

Over the next decade, he established himself as a theatre director, actor, lyricist and singer.

Thereafter he moved to Delhi, and joined National School of Drama, graduating in 1986.

While at NSD, he got a chance to compose his first music score for a student play, Mashreeki Hoor.

Piyush Mishra was introduced to communism by his friend N. K. Sharma in 1989 and he was a thorough Leftist worker for 20 years.

Mishra briefly moved to Mumbai, as he acted in a television series, Rajdhani (1989), directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia for Star TV, and Shyam Benegal's Bharat Ek Khoj (1988) and horror TV serial Kile ka Rahasya (1989), though he returned to Delhi thereafter.

After his graduation from NSD in 1990, Piyush Mishra started his career as a theatre actor in Delhi, and in 1990, helped start the theatre group Act One, with founder-director N. K. Sharma and stage actors like Manoj Bajpai, Gajraj Rao and Ashish Vidyarthi.

Piyush is also known for his performance in Swadesh Deepak's Court Martial as Suraj Singh, first with Ranjeet Kapoor (1991) and later under the direction of Arvind Gaur (1996).

In the following years he wrote and directed several plays as a part of Act One Theatre Group, including the acclaimed play, Gagan Damama Bajiyo (The Sky Resounds with the Call to Arms), based on revolutionary Bhagat Singh, which was first performed in 1994, and upon publishing, sold its first edition in just seven days.

In 1996 he joined Asmita Theatre Group, and performed his popular one-man shows An Evening with Piyush Mishra.

He wrote the lyrics for Asmita's popular plays.

Piyush acted as Maniac in operation three star (an adaptation of Dario Fo's play Accidental Death of an Anarchist).

Mishra made his debut as a film actor with Mani Ratnam's Dil Se.. in 1998, he portrayed as C.B.I Investigation Officer.

though he continued to stay in Delhi to pursue theatre.

By then, he had established himself as a theatre director and directed Comedy of Terror play for Shriram Centre Repertory Company, and also presented his solo act play at the National School of Drama's Annual Theatre Festival, Bharat Rang Mahotsav in 1999.

His transition from playwright to screenwriter happened when he wrote the dialogues for Rajkumar Santoshi's 2001 film The Legend of Bhagat Singh, which was inspired in part by Mishra's critically acclaimed play on Bhagat Singh – Gagan Damama Bajyo.

He moved to Mumbai in 2002, receiving acclaim for his acting in Maqbool (2003) and Gangs of Wasseypur (2012).

Meanwhile, he moved to Mumbai in November 2002, where he went on to establish a career as a film lyricist, screenwriter and as an actor.

He started writing lyrics with the film, Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar in 2002, and subsequently wrote for Black Friday (2004), Aaja Nachle and Tashan.

It won him the Zee Cine Award for Best Dialogue (2003).

Mishra won accolades for his performance as Kaka in Vishal Bhardwaj's 2003 film Maqbool, an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth.

As a film lyricist and singer, he is noted for his songs Arre Ruk Ja Re Bandeh in Black Friday, (2004), Aarambh Hai Prachand in Gulaal (2009), Ik Bagal in Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 1, (2012), and Husna in MTV Coke Studio, (2012).

He wrote his own dialogues for his performance as Hafeez (Huffy) Bhai in Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (2007), and delivered them in poetry style.

Mishra again appeared in Anurag Kashyap's 2009 movie Gulaal, a movie based on Indian youth, politics, caste-prejudice, and other such social topics.

He played Prithvi, the poet brother of Dukey Bana (played by Kay Kay Menon), in the movie.

This was a role he executed with aplomb.

He also wrote the lyrics for the songs in the movie, and sung few of them as well and was also the music director of the film.