Kulbhushan Kharbanda is an Indian actor, who worked in Hindi and Punjabi films. He is better known for his role as antagonist Shakaal in
Shaan (1980) inspired by the character of
Blofeld from
James Bond movies. Starting with Delhi-based theatre group
Yatrik in the 1960s, he moved to films with
Sai Paranjpye's
Jadu Ka Shankh in 1974, he worked in several
parallel cinema films, before working in mainstream Bollywood. He later appeared in
Mahesh Bhatt's classic,
Arth (1982),
Ek Chadar Maili Si (1986), and in all three parts of
Deepa Mehta's
Elements trilogy,
Fire (1996),
Earth (1998), and
Water (2005).