Acting coach Roshan Taneja died in Mumbai on Friday night, said his family. He was 87 years old.

Taneja was reportedly suffering from pancreatic cancer. “My father passed away last night [Friday] at 9.30 pm in his sleep at home after a prolonged illness,” Taneja’s son Rohit Taneja told IANS. The cremation will be held at 4.30 pm on Saturday in Santacruz West. He is survived by his wife Mithika and two sons.

Taneja is known as one of the early adopters of method acting in India. Taneja had trained several Bollywood actors including Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Jaya Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Rani Mukherji and Ranbir Kapoor. He had been training actors since the 1960s. Initially, he was a faculty member at Pune’s Film and Television Institute of India. Later, he opened his own acting school in Mumbai.

Several actors took to Twitter to pay their tributes.

Shabana Azmi said Taneja was the only person whose feet she touched. “Late last night came the sad news that Roshan Taneja passed away,” she tweeted. “He was my Guru at FTII and the only person whose feet I touched. I was privileged to be trained in acting by him.”

Actor Rakesh Bedi said he owed his career to Taneja while filmmaker Atanu Ghosh said an “illustrious era spanning more than five decades” ended with Taneja’s death.