Benjamin’s early education was at various schools across Punjab where his father was posted in different towns in his capacity as a civil judge. Later went to Bishop Cotton School, one of the most famous public schools in north India. After finishing from there as a first class student in the Indian School Certificate Examination (conducted by Cambridge University) he took admission to the Economics Honours course at St. Stephen's College. St. Stephen's counts amongst its alumni such luminaries as Jaswant Singh, Natwar Singh, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Kapil Sibal, General Zia ul Haq and Kabir Bedi. According to him economics was'nt to be the field of the furture, so shifted himself to English Honours instead and graduated in 1968.

"Over the years, he has worked with film directors like Shyam Benegal, Basu Bhattacharya, S.Ramanathan, Ketan Mehta and others."

Later he went on to do post graduation in the same subject and finished with an M.A degree in 1970. Rejecting the idea of a career in either banking or the civil services, he was accepted by the faculty as a lecturer in English. Thereafter joined the staff of St. Stephen's college in August 1970 and taught undergraduate classes for two years. His main subjects of interest - then and even till today are Alfred Lord Tennyson, William Shakespeare and T.S. Eliot. This automatically led to an interest in drama and theatre and took part in almost twenty one-act and more than a dozen full length plays during stint at Delhi University.

An accidental look at an advertisment for the acting course at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune led to an impulsive decision to apply and, when he was selected, he resigned from the job at College and proceeded to Pune for the two-year course in July 1972. After graduating with a first division and a Diploma in Cinema Acting (DCA) in May 1974 and he came to Mumbai (then Bombay) where he is being residning ever since. Initial breakthroughs being hard to came in the film industry, he started of with modelling, fashion shows, voicing for documentaries and whatever came to his hand for an eager actor. Over the years, he has worked with film directors like Shyam Benegal, Basu Bhattacharya, S. Ramanathan, Ketan Mehta and others. When television became stable in the mid-eighties, he worked with a host of young and senior directors in TV serials which today would numbers more than fifty.

In 1979, he started a theatre company with Naseeruddin Shah and Tom Alter. The company is called MOTLEY. Over the last twenty years, they have performed the works of Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett, George Bernard Shaw, Neil Simon, Chekov, Edward Albee, Herman Wouk, Albert Camus and some other less notable, though by no means less talented, playwrights. MOTLEY travels regularly to various parts of India to bring this brand of theatre to audience both young and old.

Presently he is engaged mostly in Television work as he thinks Film work is less 'organised' and also because Television regularly throws up the kind of opportunities that may not exist in the film world.

Date of Birth : 20 November 1947

Place of birth : Dhariwal (Punjab)

Interest and hobbies : Reading, Writing, Automobiles, Trekking (when time permits) , Stamp collecting, Playing guitar, Music, Calligraphy, and Last but not the least, Cooking.