Naseeruddin Shah is an actor with a distinguished cinematic and theatrical career spanning more than five decades. A notable figure of the Indian parallel cinema movement, his body of work ranges from critically acclaimed independent films to commercial hits. He has been awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival (1984). Along with three National Film Awards he has been awarded the Padma Bhushan and Padma Shree – the third and fourth highest civilian awards in India respectively, for his contribution to Indian cinema. In the theatrical world, Naseeruddin Shah founded The Motley Theatre Group with Benjamin Gilani that has since produced memorable Indian performances of plays by Beckett, Shaw, Ionesco, and numerous Hindustani works. In 2014, Hamish Hamilton published his memoir And Then One Day.