Gajanan Jagirdar (2 April 1907 – 13 August 1988) was a veteran Indian film director, screenwriter and actor. He worked in Hindi Cinema, also called Bollywood, as well as Marathi cinema. The period of 1942 to 1947, saw his rise as a film director with Prabhat Films.

He was appointed as the first director (then principal) of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in 1960 which was known as Film Institute of India then. Jagirdar served as the director of the FTII for just over a year, from 1961 to 1962. He was associated with the Prabhat Film Company three decades before his FTII role, when the campus was the base of the Prabhat.

He became a well-known pedagogue applying the acting theories of Stanislavsky to the prevailing local conditions.

At the 1962 National Film Awards his film Vaijayanta was awarded the Second Best Marathi Feature Film.

Early life
Gajanan Jagirdar was born on 2 April 1907 in Amravati, a city in Amravati district, which was a part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency of British India. He started acting as a child actor in the amateur stage. Gajanan was a teacher before joining the film industry.