Pran

Pran was one of the leading character actors of Indian cinema. He was born on 12 February,1920 at Delhi. Pran was educated at different places namely Kapurthala, Unnao, Meerut, Dehradun and Rampur as his father late Lala Kewal Krishnan Sikand was a Government Civil Contractor for the construction of roads and bridges. Pran started his career by learning photography in Lahore.

Pran wanted to be a photographer and was working in a shop in Shimla where he learned photography from 1936-39. Then he went to Lahore, and that's where he got his first break.

Pran's first ever acting role was Sita to Madan Puri's Ram in Shimla, at a local Ramlila in 1938.

Pran started his career in 1939 even before Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar entered the film industry.

A chance meeting with a film producer, got him his first break in 'Yamla Jat' in 1940.

His first film as a hero was Punjabi film Khandaan in 1942 opposite Noor-Jehan and first film as a villain was Punjabi film Yamla Jat in 1940. He acted in 22 Hindi movies from 1940-1946 and 18 got released by 1947 and remaining 4 got released in Pakistan after Partition.

Married in 1945 to Shukla, he had two sons Arvind and Sunil, and one daughter Pinky.

At partition in 1947, Pran came to Mumbai and restarted his film career after a brief struggle. He acted in over 400 films in a variety of roles. As a villain, in films like 'Ram Aur Shyam' people shuddered with fear and hated him, and yet loved him as the good, unforgettable 'Mangal chacha' in 'Upkar'. He went on to star in films with the leading actors of various decades from Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Rajendra Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra to Sanjay Dutt, Sunny Deol and Salman Khan. He was among the highest paid and most sought after character actors of his time, starring in some of the biggest and most acclaimed films of all time. Being a sports lover and a good sportsmen he had his own football team "Dynamos Football Club" which he financed for a number of years in the fifties. Along with his film career he had been engaged in a number of Social activities, including the Chief Minister's Relief Fund, Maratha Sikshan Sanatha, Film Industry Welfare Trust. He had organised charity events and cricket matches, as well as the 'Hope 86' and 'Hope 87' shows for the needy people in the film industry. Under the patronage of the Late, His Excellency Nawab Ali Yawar Jung, Pran presented a number of charity shows for the refugees of Bangladesh and for the deaf and dumb.

After eight months of arriving in Mumbai, Pran -- with the help of writer Saadat Hasan Manto and actor Shyam -- got a role in Shaheed Latif's Ziddi(1948), starring Dev Anand and Kamini Kaushal.

In the film Badi Behen in 1949, Pran adopted the action of blowing perfect smoke rings while smoking his cigarettes for first time. Later Pran was asked by various directors from the 1950's until the 1990's to do this act in many films. This act became his trademark action.

Ashok Kumar and Pran were best friends and have acted in 27 films together from 1951-1987 and had 20 super-hit films together.

Pran did 9 films with Shashi Kapoor as the lead hero and 7 of them were hits.In 1952 in film Sanskaar, Shashi had worked as a child artist with Pran.

When Pran came to Mumbai, he stayed at the Taj Mahal hotel. As he had no work, money started running out, and the family had to shift to smaller and smaller hotels. Finally, they had to stay in a guest house. And then rented houses till 1954. Pran rented a two bedroom flat in Pali Hill and for some years he lived in Mazagaon, central Mumbai. When Pran's youngest daughter was three, he bought a bungalow in Union Park, Bandra.

In the decade of 60's from 1960-69 he appeared in 60 Hindi movies and 1 Bengali movie Sonai Dighe- which is a record in Hindi films for an actor not playing heroes role but either character actor or a villain's role.His demand as an actor grew bigger from late 1950's and reached its peak from 1965-1982.He did 62 movies in decade of 1950's and 60 in 1960's.

In the film Shaheed in 1965, two famous villains of the time Pran and Prem Chopra played positive roles. Pran did the role for a pittance, as he was a close friend of actor Manoj Kumar.

Pran had done Aurat (1967) where Rajesh Khanna was supporting actor and Pran was the main male lead and in 1971 Maryada which was a 2 hero film with Pran as villain. Pran did 6 more films with Rajesh Khanna from 1983-1987 and of them Souten, Jaanwar(1983), Bewafai, Durgaa were hits and Gora was their only flops and 1 film Bayen Haath Ka Khel remains unreleased.

He worked with B R Chopra only once in Afsana, which was Chopra's directorial debut. As Pran's fee was very high in 1969-1982 and for a supporting actor he was not ready to shell out and thought of investing more in hero and rest of cast.For same reason Shakti Samanta and many small budget film-makers did no work with Pran from 1969-82. Yash Chopra gave him small role in Joshila for marketing reason and so that Pran would not charge him his official market rate as length of role was less.

Shammi Kapoor, Rajendra Kumar's career began in late 50's and ended in early 1970's but Pran continued to get pivotal roles.

In 1972, Pran refused to accept his Filmfare award for the Best Supporting Actor in Be-Imaan because he felt music composer Ghulam Mohammed deserved a Filmfare award for his songs in Pakeezah.

Pran and Amitabh Bachchan worked together in several super hit films - Zanjeer (1973), Majboor (1974), Kasauti (1974), Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), Ganga Ki Saugandh (1978), Don (1978), Dostana (1980), Naseeb (1981), Kaalia (1981), Nastik (1983), Andha Kanoon (1983), Sharaabi (1984) that are among the top grossing films of 1970s and 1980s. Toofan (1989) , Jaadugar (1989) and Mrityudaata (1997) are the only Pran - Amitabh Bachchan starrers that are flops.

Pran has worked in 2 hit Telugu films called Tandra Paparayudu in 1986 and Kodama Simham with Cheeranjvi in 1990 and in a Kannada film Hosa Raaga in 1991.

Stopped working in movies when he had a heart problem in 1998. That was the first time he was ever admitted in hospital in his life for health reasons.Earlier Pran met with an accident while shooting for Dus Numbri when he was 56 years old then as he insisted on jumping 15 feet and broke his ankle.

In an illustrious career of over six decades, Pran was bestowed with many awards including 4 Filmfare Awards, Villain of the Millennium honour from Stardust, Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award from the Government of India in 2000 and the DadaSaheb Phalke Award for Lifetime Achievement (highest honour for cinema in India) from the Government of India in 2012.