Puneet Issar (born 6 November 1959)[2][3] is an Indian actor, writer, director, producer and dialect coach best known for his works in Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam films and television shows.

[4] Issar started his acting career as a villain in Manmohan Desai's 1983 film Coolie, but gained recognition with the portrayal of Duryodhana in B. R. Chopra's television series Mahabharat (1988–1990).

[3] Following Mahabharat, Issar acted in notable films including Chandra Mukhi (1993), Prem Shakti (1994), Ram Jaane (1995), Border (1997), Refugee (2000), Krrish (2006), Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008), Ready (2011), Son of Sardaar (2012) and The Kashmir Files (2022).

[5] His first directorial was Salman Khan starrer cop film Garv (2004), for which he co-wrote the screenplay with wife Deepali.

[12] He played the role of Parashurama in 2013 Mahabharata and Duryodhana in the epic TV series Mahabharat (1988–1990) which brought him mainstream popularity.

He later admitted that he had to face a lot of problems in getting roles in movies and he also lost 7-8 films due to the notoriety of the incident.

In 2004, Issar directed the film Garv: Pride and Honour starring Salman Khan and Shilpa Shetty in lead roles.

[22] In 2022, Issar played DGP Hari Narain in The Kashmir Files, a film based on the Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits.