Sayaji Shinde (Marathi pronunciation: [səjaːd͡ʒiː ʃin̪d̪eː]; born 13 January 1959) is an Indian actor who appears in Indian films.
Sayaji started his acting career in 1978 in Marathi Plays one-act plays. His performance in a 1987 Marathi play titled Zulva was very well received, and since then he started gaining popularity among the circle of stalwarts. Later, he moved on to Marathi cinema and then started acting in other languages. He won Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Marathi for Aboli (1995) film, for his reprising debutant role "Sayaji".
Sayaji Shinde was born on 13 January 1959 in Vele, a village in Satara district, Maharashtra, into a family of farmers. In interviews, he has described his childhood as one of poverty, stating that his family's agricultural land was submerged following the construction of a dam, leaving the family without a stable source of livelihood.
He moved to Satara for his education and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in Marathi. While studying, he worked as a night watchman for the Irrigation Department of the Government of Maharashtra, earning ₹165 per month, and later worked as a clerk and at a co-operative bank. During his college years, Shinde became involved in amateur theatre. His interest in acting eventually led him to Mumbai, where he worked in a salaried position at a bank for seventeen years while pursuing acting in theatre.
Career
Sayaji pursued acting first through Marathi theatre. He started doing one-act plays in 1978, and went on to get noticed in plays like Zulva (1987), One Room Kitchen (1989) and Amchya Ya Gharat (1991). He then moved to acting in Marathi cinema.
Sayaji Shinde has acted in a wide range of films, portraying diverse characters, including villains, supporting roles, and occasionally, comedic roles.
Personal life
Shinde married Alka Shinde in 2002, who is fifteen years younger than him. The couple have a son, Siddharth Shinde. He divides his time between Mumbai and Satara, where Sahyadri Devrai is registered. He has attributed his involvement in afforestation to the death of his mother, whom he promised to plant 5,000 native trees in her memory. The pledge later grew into a larger afforestation initiative.
On 11 April 2024, Shinde was admitted to Pratibha Hospital in Satara after experiencing severe chest pain. Doctors reported a 99 per cent blockage in one of his coronary arteries, following which he underwent an emergency angioplasty.
Shinde founded Sahyadri Devrai in 2015 and serves as its president, with the organisation working to restore devrai, the community-protected sacred groves of the Western Ghats, using indigenous tree species. According to the organisation, it has planted more than 650,000 native trees at over 29 sites across Maharashtra, along with establishing tree banks, a butterfly garden and biodiversity parks.
In March 2023, Shinde narrowly escaped a swarm of bees while replanting trees that had been uprooted for the widening of the Pune–Bengaluru expressway near Taswade.
Shinde has also campaigned against tree felling. In November 2025, he opposed a plan by the Nashik Municipal Corporation to remove approximately 1,700 trees in the Tapovan area to make way for a Sadhu Gram for the Kumbh Mela. He questioned assurances of compensatory planting given by minister Girish Mahajan and criticised road-widening work in Satara district that he said would result in the removal of around 400 banyan trees. Although a member of the governing coalition's NCP, Shinde said he would oppose the state government if it proceeded with the tree removal. Deputy Chief MinisterAjit Pawar subsequently backed his position, saying environmental balance mattered as much as development, while some akhara leaders accused Shinde of misunderstanding the Kumbh Mela.
Shinde said that although he had portrayed politicians on screen, he had never been one himself, and that his social work had led him to believe that working within the political system would allow him to pursue those activities more effectively. He also said that his interactions with Pawar during tree-plantation activities had influenced his decision to join the party. Pawar announced that Shinde would serve as one of the party's star campaigners for the assembly election, while minister Chhagan Bhujbal referred to him as both an actor and social activist. He did not contest the election.
