After more than three decades of quietly stealing scenes in Hindi cinema, Sanjay Mishra has landed the recognition that eluded him for years – a National Film Award. The actor received the Best Supporting Actor award for playing Bhaskar Sinha in the 2024 crime drama Bhakshak. President Droupadi Murmu handed out the honours at the 72nd National Film Awards ceremony, held outside New Delhi for the first time.
#SanjayMishra receives the National Film Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for the film #Bhakshak, from President Droupadi Murmu.
— Filmfare (@filmfare) September 22, 2026
[Video Courtesy: PIB_India/X]#72ndNationalFilmAwards #NationalAward #Trending pic.twitter.com/HzYbJmYKhf
For an actor who has built a career on unpredictability, even this moment came with a twist. Mishra had admitted he never saw it coming, and reflected instead on his work with Bhumi Pednekar in both Dum Laga Ke Haisha and Bhakshak, films that brought him considerable appreciation and led him to call her his “lucky charm.”
The way he found out made it more personal than most award announcements. He began receiving messages telling him to check the Press Information Bureau for the announcement, with one message specifically nudging him to watch for the National Awards results. What made it especially poignant, he said, was that his own father had once worked at that very PIB office – an office through which Mishra now learned of his own award, calling the moment deeply emotional.
Sanjay Mishra’s road to this award stretches back over 30 years, and it hasn’t followed any predictable script. He was born on 6 October 1963. Raised in Varanasi, he came from a household with a strong pull toward public service and the arts – his father worked at the Press Information Bureau, his grandfather served as a District Magistrate, and it was his father’s interest in the arts, along with his grandmother’s singing for Patna Radio, that first pointed him toward performance.
Sanjay Mishra trained formally for the craft, graduating from the National School of Drama. He studied at the National School of Drama in New Delhi, completing his course in 1989. He made his Bollywood debut in Oh Darling Yeh Hai India (1995), alongside Shah Rukh Khan and Deepa Sahi, before going on to appear in Rajkumar, Dil Se, Wajood, Satya, and several others. Alongside films, he built a steady television career, appearing in shows including Chanakya, Aahat, Office Office, C.I.D., and Comedy Circus.
What makes his filmography unusual is its refusal to sit in one lane. He took on serious, dramatic roles in Satya, Zameen, Plan, and Charas: A Joint Effort. He also carved out a name in comedy with films like Golmaal: Fun Unlimited and Dhamaal, alongside acclaimed work in Bunty Aur Babli and Apna Sapna Money Money. That tension between the two sides of his craft is something he has spoken about directly. He disagrees with being boxed in purely as a “comedian,” and considers himself an actor first.
It was a smaller, quieter film that eventually proved his point. He took the lead role in Ankhon Dekhi (2013), directed by Rajat Kapoor, a performance that earned him the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor – an award he would go on to win a second time. He has twice won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor, for Ankhon Dekhi (2015) and Vadh (2022), alongside several other honours and nominations. In the years since, he has kept up a steady run of work across formats and genres, appearing in everything from Newton and Masaan to Jolly LLB. He remains one of Hindi cinema’s most dependable character actors even as leading roles began coming his way more often.
Even with a National Award now behind him,Sanjay Mishra isn’t slowing down — and his next stop takes him to Bihar. He is set to appear in Jackson Halt 2, the sequel to 2023’s Jackson Halt, which will once again be produced under Neetu Chandra and Nitin Chandra’s banner, Champaran Talkies.
The original film, a Maithili-language crime thriller was centred on a remote, eerie railway station. It built a reputation as one of the breakout titles of the recent wave of Bihar’s cinema, eventually earning a screening at the International Film Festival of India. With the sequel now having gone on floors, Mishra’s involvement adds a recognisable, award-winning face to a growing regional film movement that has been working steadily to put Maithili cinema on the national map.
