Roshan Taneja, who trained Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, dies in Mumbai

Acting coach Roshan Taneja died in Mumbai on Friday night, his family said. He was 87 years old

Taneja would suffer from pancreatic cancer. "My father died last night [Friday] at 9:30 pm in his sleep at home after a long illness," said Taneja's son Rohit Taneja at IANS. The cremation will take place Saturday at 16:30 in Santacruz West. He is survived by his wife Mithika and two sons.

Taneja is one of the pioneers of adopting the method in India. Taneja had trained several Bollywood actors, including Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Jaya Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Rani Mukherji and Ranbir Kapoor. He had trained actors since the 1960s. At first, he was a faculty member of the Indian Institute of Film and Television in Pune. Later, he opened his own theater school in Mumbai.

Several actors paid tribute to Twitter

Shabana Azmi said that Taneja was the only person she touched. "Yesterday evening came the sad news that Roshan Taneja has pbaded away," she tweeted. "He was my guru at FTII and the only person I touched.

The actor Rakesh Bedi said that he owed his career to Taneja, while filmmaker Atanu Ghosh said that an "illustrious period of more than five decades" is ended with the death of Taneja.