Govardhan Asrani (1 January 1941 – 20 October 2025), known professionally as Asrani, was an Indian actor and film director. His career in Indian cinema spanned over five decades, during which he appeared in over 350 Hindi and Gujarati films. Asrani worked in lead, character, comedic, and supporting roles. He is particularly noted for his role as the Jailor in Sholay, caricaturing Hitler, and Amadavad no Rikshavaro and for his appearances in 25 films with Rajesh Khanna as the lead actor between 1972 and 1991.

In Hindi cinema, he appeared in several comic roles from 1966 to 2014 and frequently portrayed the close friend of the lead actor in films between 1972 and 1995. He appeared in multiple films directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Priyadarshan. In some Hindi films, including Chala Murari Hero Banne and Salaam Memsaab, he played the lead role. In Gujarati films, he acted as the lead from 1972 to 1984 and performed character roles from 1985 to 2012. He directed six films between 1974 and 1997.

Asrani died in Mumbai on 20 October 2025, at the age of 84.

Asrani was born into a middle-class, Sindhi Hindu family in Jaipur. His father opened a carpet shop. He has four sisters and three brothers: two elder and one younger. Asrani was uninterested in business and weak in mathematics. He completed his matriculation from St Xavier's School, Jaipur and did his graduation from Rajasthan College, Jaipur. He simultaneously worked as a voice artist at All India Radio, Jaipur, to pay for his education.

He married actress Manju Bansal, with whom he fell in love while working together in films like Aaj Ki Taaza Khabar and Namak Haram. After they wed, the couple acted in Tapasya, Chandi Sona, Jaan-E-Bahaar, Jurmana, Nalayak, Sarkari Mehmaan, Narad Vivah and Chor Sipahee. In Aaj Ki Taaza Khabar, Asrani played Champak Boomia / Amit Desai and Manju played Kesari Desai. For this role Asrani won the Filmfare Award for Best Comedian. Later the couple acted in Hum Nahin Sudhrenge, a home production directed by Asrani in 1980.

Asrani began to learn acting from Sahitya Kalbhai Thakkar from 1960 to 1962. In 1962, he travelled to Mumbai to seek opportunities to act. In 1963, on an accidental meeting with Kishore Sahu and Hrishikesh Mukherjee, they advised him to learn acting professionally.^{[citation needed]}

In 1964 Asrani joined the Film Institute in Pune and finished his course in 1966. He got his first break in Hindi films playing the friend of actor Biswajeet in the film Hare Kaanch Ki Choodiyan in 1967. In the film institute he had impressed many and made his acting break as a hero in 1967 with a Gujarati movie opposite budding actress Waheeda (not Waheeda Rahman; the Hindi actress). He acted in four other movies, mainly as actor or supporting actor, in Gujarati from 1967 to 1969. He did not get many offers from the Hindi film industry between 1967 and 1969. His old advisor, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, then gave him the role of supporting actor in the film Satyakam in 1969. He got noticed then in the film Mere Apne. From 1971, he started getting more offers as the main comedian in films or as the close friend of the lead actor. ^{[citation needed]}

Directors like Mukherjee, Atma Ram, and Gulzar repeatedly cast him in the period 1971–1974, and his work got noticed through these films. These roles set the tone for a number of supporting and comic roles in his career. In the 1970s his demand was at its peak as he appeared in 101 films from 1970 to 1979. Though initially Rajesh Khanna and Asrani had met only on the sets of Bawarchi, they became close friends after Namak Haraam, after which for comic roles Khanna insisted the producers and directors make Asrani a part of his films. Asrani worked in 25 films with Khanna from 1972 to 1991, from Bawarchi (1972) to Ghar Parivaar (1991).