Thomas Beach "Tom" Alter is an Indian actor. He is a television actor, is best
known for his work in Bollywood, and has also worked in the theatre.
In 2008, he was awarded Padma Shri by the Indian government.
Early life and education A native of Mussoorie, Uttarakhand,
India, Tom Alter is the son of American Christian missionaries of English and
Scottish ancestry and has lived for years in Mumbai and the Himalayan hill
station of Landour. His father was born in Sialkot, now in Pakistan. His elder
sister Martha Chen has a PhD in South Asian Studies and his brother John is a
poet and a teacher. As a child, he studied Hindi and,
consequently, he has occasionally been referred to as the "Blue-eyed saheb with
impeccable Hindi." He studied at the Film and Television
Institute of India. His major inspiration to enter films was Rajesh
Khanna. He confessed in an interview "I still dream of being Rajesh Khanna. For
me, in the early 1970s, he was the only hero — romantic to the core, not larger
than life, so Indian and real — he was my hero; the reason I came into films
and he still is." He is married, with two children, a son,
Jamie, and daughter, Afshaan. He is a life member of International
Film And Television Club & International Film And Television Research Centre of
Asian Academy of Film & Television. Career
Alter taught at St. Thomas school in Jagadhri for $50 a month before taking
to films. He worked as a sports teacher at the school. He used to coach cricket
in the school. His crisp columns on sport have enthralled readers of popular
newspapers and journals to which he contributed for ten years. He loved his
job and the small town of Jagadhri. In his own words, "There was something very
warm about Jagadhri. I remained a teacher there until the day I watched
Rajesh Khanna romance Sharmila in Aaradhna. That was the beginning of my
addiction to cinema." Alter is fluent in Hindi and
knowledgeable of Indian culture. He has worked for noted filmmakers like
Satyajit Ray in Shatranj Ke Khilari and is remembered for his role as a British
officer in Kranti. In Sardar, the 1993 film biography of Indian leader Sardar
Patel, which focused on the events surrounding the partition and
independence of India, Alter portrayed Lord Mountbatten of Burma. He has also
played Indian characters in Indian television series, such as the
long-running Junoon, in which he was the sadistic mob lord Keshav Kalsi. He also
acted in Hollywood movie One Night with the King with Peter O'Toole.
Sachin Tendulkar's first ever television interview was with Tom Alter, when a
15-year-old Sachin faced a video camera for the first time ever as a cricketer
in between practice sessions of his Ranji team Bombay in 1988.
Alter has written such books as The Longest Race, Rerun at Rialto, The Best
in the world, and is also a sports journalist with a special interest in
cricket, a game on which he has written extensively in publications such as
Sportsweek, Outlook, Cricket talk, Sunday Observer and Debonair. He plays
cricket for a film industry team MCC, which includes Naseeruddin Shah, Satish
Shah, Vishal Bhardwaj, Aamir Khan, Nana Patekar, Bhupinder Singh and Amarinder
Sangha. He also wrote on cricket in Indian publications. In 1996, he was
invited by friend Siraj Syed to Singapore, to do cricket commentary in
Hindi, for Indian viewers, on the sports TV channel, ESPN.
In 1996 he appeared in the Assamese-language film Adajya, and in
2007 acted in the theatrical reproduction of William Dalrymple's City
of Djinns alongside Zohra Sehgal and Manish Joshi Bismil. He also appeared in
a solo play Maulana, based on Maulana Azad for which he has received much
critical acclaim. He has also received praise for his role in the art film
Ocean of An Old Man, which has been screened at film festivals around the
world. Alter's first cousin Stephen Alter, also
born and raised in India, is a notable author and teacher. Both are graduates
of Woodstock School, Mussoorie. Alter has also worked as the red robe guru in
Mukesh Khanna's TV production Shaktiman. Alter has also acted in the role of a
doctor in Bheja Fry, a comedy movie starring Rajat Kapoor.
In April 2011, he acted in a short film Yours, Maria directed by Chirag Vadgama
playing the lead role of Matthew Chacha in the movie.
Alter is also a theater actor. In 1977 he along with Naseeruddin Shah and
Benjamin Gilani formed a theatre group called Motley Productions. Their first
play was Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot, which was staged at Prithvi
Theatre, Mumbai, on 29 July 1979. He has been performing at Prithvi Theatre ever
since, his latest being an adaptation of Vaikom Muhammad Basheer's My Grandad had
an Elephant which was performed on 7 June 2011. He has also worked with the
New Delhi theatre group Pierrot's Troupe.
Presently, he is performing in TV serials such as Khamosh sa Afsana,
telecast on India's state-owned network, Doordarshan. Since November 2014, he is
playing Sahir Ludhianvi in a stage production based on life and work of the
famous Urdu poet and film-lyricist. Alter has lent his voice for authorized
Audio Autobiography of Dr. Verghese Kurien, titled 'The Man Who Made The
Elephant Dance' which was released on 5 September. 2012 at the hands of Infosys
Co-founder and Chairman Narayana Murthy at International Convention Centre,
Bombay Stock Exchange, Mumbai. It is conceptualised and produced by Atul
Bhide of Om Audio Books. = Appearance in Indian TV serials=
Alter appeared in many Indian TV serials and were praised by audience for his
acting. In Zabaan Sambhalke he played the role of a British writer, Charles
Spencers, who lives in India and wants to learn Hindi language.
Filmography References
External links Tom Alter at the Internet Movie Database