Nitish Bharadwaj (born 2 June 1963) is an Indian television and film actor, director, screenwriter, film and TV programme producer, veterinarian (veterinary surgeon) graduate from Mumbai Veterinary college and former Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha. He is best known for his role as Lord Krishna in B. R. Chopra's television series Mahabharat, as well as for his portrayal of Lord Vishnu and several avatars of Lord Vishnu in some of Chopra's other great works, such as Vishnu Puran His debut directorial film in Marathi titled Pitruroon has won him accolades from both the audiences and critics and he now focuses on his film career entirely through screenwriting, directing and acting. Career Theatre and radio Before coming into the field of acting, Bharadwaj was a professional veterinary surgeon and had worked as an assistant veterinarian at a Race Course in Mumbai; however, he left the job considering it a monotonous one. He started his arts career with his training in Marathi theatre as a director, under stalwarts such as Sudha Karmarkar, Dr. Kashinath Ghanekar and Prabhakar Panshikar. He then moved on to professional Marathi theatre with Sai Paranjapye and later shifted to Hindi theatre on sound advice from his friend Ravi Baswani. Baswani was instrumental in getting Bharadwaj from Marathi to the nation-wide Hindi arena and Bharadwaj has always acknowledged Baswani's contribution to his life. He worked with a thespian of Hindi theatre named Dinesh Thakur and performed in many of his plays till 1987. He later did a Hindi mythological play Chakravyuh, in which he reappears as Lord Krishna, the role he mastered in the old Mahabharat. Though the play depicts the story of Abhimanyu's martyrdom, it brings out various issues out of the same story which are relevant to today's times. Chakravyuh was one of the most successful plays of Hindi Theatre in 2015 and has already had around 75 showings across India, including some theatre festivals like the Kala Ghoda Festival, Mumbai. Bharadwaj also performed in a musical theatre production titled Moti Roti Patli Chunni (1993), with a renowned theatre in London (UK) named "Theatre Royal Stratford East". This play won the "London Time Out Dance & Performance Award" and toured across Britain and Canada. Bharadwaj also did 2 radio shows for BBC Radio 4 (London, UK), namely Bhagvad Geeta and Ramayan. He was nominated for the "Sony Radio award" for Ramayan in the UK in 1995.