“Es Ilaque mein naye aaye ho sahab ? Varna Sher Khan ko Kaun nahi janata ?” “Kapde badalne Se Aadmi Ki Asliyat Nahi Badal Jati…” These are two popular dialogues uttered by an actor who was in top form as a Villain in Hindi films during 60s 70s and 80s. The iconic film actor Pran, who was born as Pran Krishan Sikand on 12 February 1920; passed away at the age of 93. Winner of multiple Filmfare and BFJA awards, Pran was a popular villain in Hindi cinema from the late 40s till late 90s. He almost completed 50 years of his active acting career, appearing in 350 films. If there was anyone to be referred to as ‘Villain of the Millennium’, it will be none other than Pran sahab. No wonder, in 2010, he was listed in CNN’s Top 25 Asian actors of all time.
Having won the most popular awards of his time- the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award in 1967, 1969 and 1972; he was also awarded the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. In the year 2001, he was honoured with the most prestigious Padma Bhushan by the Government of India, for his contribution to Indian cinema. Not many are aware that Pran was a member of various organizations, and also owned a football team ‘Bombay Dynamos Football Club’.
During his childhood, Pran had an opportunity to study at different places like Dehradun, Kapurthala, Meerut and Unnao (Uttar Pradesh) and finally completing his matriculation from Raza High School, in Rampur. Thanks to his father, who has a Civil Engineer had a transferable job. Pran joined a company in Delhi as an apprentice, as he wanted to become a professional photographer. This job took him first to Simla, where he played Sita to Madan Puri’s Ram in the local performance during ‘Ramlila’. He later married Shukla Ahluwalia on 18 April 1945 and has two sons, Arvind and Sunil and a daughter, Pinky.
Pran bagged his first role as a villain in Dalsukh Pancholi’s Punjabi film ‘Yamla Jat’ (1945), a big hit in that year. He performed in 22 films from 1945-46 in Lahore, out of which 18 were released by 1947. After partition he left Lahore and arrived in Mumbai (then Bombay) on 14 August 1947.He moved from one hotel to other, while searching for roles and finally found one in the Bombay Talkies film,’Ziddi’ which had Dev Anand and Kamini Kaushal in the lead. This launched his career in this dream city. Thereafter, there was no looking back for Pran. He was already a famous actor in 40s; but by 1950, he established himself as the most wanted villain in Hindi Cinema.
With successful films like ‘Ziddi’ and ‘Badi Behan’(1949), Pran turned a regular villain in the films of top stars like Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor. Prominent among them were films like ‘ Azaad’, ‘Aan’, ‘Madhumati’, ‘Devdas’, ‘Aah’, ‘Chori Chori’, ‘Munimji’ ‘Jagte Raho’, ‘Chhalia’, ‘Azad’, ‘Dil Diya Dard Liya’, ‘Amar Deep’ , ‘Asha’, ‘Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai’ ‘Jis Desh Men Ganga Behti Hai’, ‘Dil Hi Toh Hai’ ‘Ram Aur Shyam’ ‘Patthar Ke Sanam’and ‘Aadmi’,’Sadhu Aur Shaitan’, Nanha Farishta’ . As a lead hero, he also performed in ‘Halaku’ and as an action hero Pran proved his versatility in the films like ‘Sindbad the Sailor’ and ‘Daughter of Sindbad’.
Pran also performed negative roles against heroes like Shammi Kapoor, Joy Mukherjee, Rajendra Kumar and Dharmendra . It was surprising to see him playing with same enthusiasm during late 70 sand 80s in many Manmohan Desai and Prakash Mehra’s films in the company of actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Vinod Khanna and Manoj Kumar. In fact, Manoj Kumar tried to change his negative image with different characters through his films like ‘Upkar’ and ‘Purab aur Paschim’. He was at the peak of his career during the period 1968 to 1982. Pran was part of Subhash Ghai’s films ‘Vishwanath’, ‘Karz’ and ‘Krodhi’. He remained active till 1997, when he performed in ‘Mrityudata’ and ‘Tere Mere Sapne’.
In all those films he acted, his name appeared in the credit list at the end as ….& Pran; which itself says a lot about his importance among film makers and the artistes of the film. Though, he played negative characters in most of the films, he was a wonderful person by heart.