Bakhtiyor Ikhtiyarov

Bakhtiyor Akhmedovich Ikhtiyarov was born on 28 March 1940 in Bukhara. He graduated from the Ostrovsky Tashkent Theatre and Art Institute (now the State Institute of Arts of Uzbekistan). In 1959 he began working at the Muqimiy musical theatre as an actor and director.

His stage career ran through the Muqimiy Theatre (1959–1976), the Yosh Gvardiya Theatre (1976–1980; now the Abror Hidoyatov Uzbek State Drama Theatre), and the Muqimiy Theatre again in 1980–1988 as its chief director. From 1988 he worked as chief director and actor at the Abdulla Qahhor Satire Theatre.

He made his screen debut in 1964 as Bakhtiyar in Ali Khamraev's comedy Yor-yor (also released as Where Are You, My Zulfiya?). He went on to appear in many films, among them Sagdulla in The Seventh Bullet (1972), Sukhrab in Abu Rayhan Beruni (1974), Bahadyr-Rustam-Dilshad ibn Sadyk in The Seventh Djinn (1976), Jamali in Hot Summer in Kabul (1983) and Bakhtiyar-aka in the Soviet-Indian film Shikari (1991). According to Kino-Teatr.ru his film work spans 1963 to 2007; Kinopoisk counts more than thirty films.

He was named People's Artist of the Uzbek SSR in 1989 and received the Order of Mehnat Shuhrati in 1999. He was married to the actress Maryam Ikhtiyarova (1939–2022).

Bakhtiyor Ikhtiyarov died in Tashkent in November 2021, aged 81.