The Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor is given by Filmfare as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films, to recognise a male actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a supporting role. Although the awards started in 1953, awards for the best supporting actor category started only the following year.

Pran, Amrish Puri, Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan, with 3 awards each, have more Best Supporting Actor awards at Filmfare than any other actor. Seven actors have won the award twice; in chronological order, they are Motilal, Nana Palsikar, Raaj Kumar, Amjad Khan, Danny Denzongpa, Jackie Shroff and Anil Kapoor.

Abhishek Bachchan also holds the record for most consecutive wins, having won the award thrice in a row from 2005 to 2007. Three other actors have won the award in consecutive years; in chronological order, they are Danny Denzongpa (1992-93), Jackie Shroff (1995-96) and Amrish Puri (1997-98).

Only twice have siblings been nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Award during the same year: Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor in 1983 (Shammi ultimately won), and Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan in 1999 (Salman ultimately won). Father and son Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan have been nominated for this award in a single year on three occasions for three consecutive years (2005-2007). In all three times, Abhishek won the award.

This is a list of awards for supporting actor. These are accolades given by a group of film or television professionals in recognition of the work of supporting and character actors. Most awards for supporting actors are gender-specific.

A supporting actor is an actor who performs roles in a play or film other than that of the leads.

These roles range from bit parts to secondary leads. They are sometimes but not necessarily character roles. A supporting actor must also use restraint not to upstage the main actor/actress in the play/movie. In earlier times these were often ethnic stereotypes. The title is usually specific to the performance, that is, a person may be a supporting actor in one film and the leading actor in the next. An individual who typically plays supporting roles is considered a character actor.

In television, a day player refers to most performers with supporting speaking roles hired on a daily basis without long-term contracts.

Supporting roles may be pivotal or vital to the story. In recognition of important nature of this work, the theater and film industries give separate awards to the Best Supporting Actor and actress. A supporting actor/actress can also be known as a 'sidekick'.

The Filmfare Awards are presented annually by The Times Group to honour both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in the Hindi language film industry of India. The Filmfare ceremony is one of the oldest and most prominent film events given for Hindi films in India. The awards were first introduced in 1954, the same year as the National Film Awards. They were initially referred to as the Clare Awards after the editor of The Times of India, Clare Mendonca. A dual voting system was developed in 1956. Under this system, "in contrast to the National Film Awards, which are decided by a panel appointed by Indian Government, the Filmfare Awards are voted for by both the public and a committee of experts." The Filmfare Awards have been often referred to as Hindi film industry's equivalent to the Oscars.

The Filmfare awards were first introduced in 1954. The Clares was the original name of the award ceremony, named after The Times of India critic Clare Mendonca. Readers of Filmfare were polled to decide the winners, and over 20,000 readers spread throughout India participated in the polls; trophies were given to winners of the popular vote. In the first awards function, held on 21 March 1954 at the Metro Theatre of Mumbai, only five awards were presented: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Music Director. Do Bigha Zameen was the first movie to win the award for Best Film. The first winners for other four categories were: Bimal Roy for his direction of Do Bigha Zameen, Dilip Kumar for his performance in Daag, Meena Kumari for her performance in Baiju Bawra, and Naushad for his music in Baiju Bawra.

Anushka Sharma (Hindi: अनुष्का शर्मा pronounced [əˈnʊʂkaː ˈʃərmaː]; born 1 May 1988) is an Indian actress and former model who appears in Hindi films. In 2008, she was signed by Aditya Chopra for a three-film contract with Yash Raj Films and made her screen debut in Chopra's Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. She later received acclaim for her role as Shruti Kakkar in Band Baaja Baaraat (2010). Both films fetched her a Best Actress nomination at the Filmfare Awards ceremony.

Sharma's father, Col. Ajay Kumar Sharma, is an army officer and her mother Ashima Sharma is a housewife. She has an elder brother named Karnesh, who was a state-level cricketer and now, is in the Merchant Navy. She studied in Army School and graduated with specialization in arts from Mount Carmel College, Bangalore. She later moved to Mumbai to further pursue her modelling career, where she currently resides.

Sharma says she originally wished to make it big in the modeling world but had no strong aspirations for films. She began her modeling career at the Lakme Fashion Week as a model for Wendell Rodricks's Les Vamps Show and was picked to be Rodricks's finale model at the Spring Summer '07 Collection. Since then she has done campaigns for Silk & Shine, Whisper, Nathella Jewelry and Fiat Palio.