Siddharth Shasta is a graduate in History (Hons.) from Hindu College, University of Delhi, and an alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. An actor, writer and filmmaker, he maintains an active creative practice alongside his work as a teacher and mentor in screen acting. Through his association with SKIFT, FTII, he has designed and conducted specialised acting programmes with a distinctive focus on enabling theatre actors to transition effectively into screen performance. His work is particularly recognised for its unique approach to adapting the Stanislavski system—as further developed by Sanford Meisner and Lee Strasberg—into the Indian cultural and social context, making it more accessible, practical and relevant for contemporary actors.
He has served as Course Director and faculty for the Short Course in Screen Acting at prestigious platforms such as Rashtriya Sanskritik Mahotsav, Banaras, and the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa. In 2018, he was deputed by FTII to lead the “Special Screen Acting Course” for Nepali actors in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. He has also been serving as a Member of the Academic Council at the Madhya Pradesh School of Drama (MPSD), Bhopal, for the past four years.
As a director, he has helmed over 25 full-length theatre productions along with several short films. He wrote and directed the Screen Acting Department’s thesis film at FTII in 2024, and has recently completed his debut feature film as writer and director. He has been teaching at FTII since 2014 and has been serving as Professor and Head of the Screen Acting Department since 2018, contributing to curriculum design, academic planning and overall departmental leadership in line with UGC frameworks.