Suryakant Mandhare was an Indian actor and director, who worked in Marathi cinema. He acted in more than 100 films. He is considered one of the greatest and influential actors in the history of Marathi cinema. Actor and filmmaker Chandrakant Mandhare is the elder brother of Suryakant. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri in 1973 for his contribution to the arts. Suryakant begun his acting career at the age of twelve as a child artist in Bhalji Pendharkar's Dhruv, returned in 1943 film Bhahirji Naik, a second collaboration with Pendharkar. Pairing of Suryakant with the actress Jayshree Gadkar was very appreciated, appeared in 70 films together including Mohityanchi Manjula (1960), Subhadra Haran (1963), Sadhi Mansa (1965), Patlaachi Soon (1966). He is noted for ruralist 'gramin chitrapat' genre films like Anant Mane's Sangte Aika (1959) and Dinkar D. Patil's Malhari Martand (1965).