Remembering Bollywood’s most loved villain Pran on his birthday 12 February
Remembering Bollywood’s most loved villain Pran on his birthday 12 February
Pran is the most admired and loved in Bollywood. He had an astounding screen presence, he had his own inimitable style in delivering dialogues. Some of his dialogues delivery evoked fear, passion away.
Despite the alarming popularity of the heroes of the time, Pran stood tall, with a screen presence that was etched vividly in the audience’s collective mind. He essayed every character with elan – you cannot imagine Zanjeer without Sher Khan, or Navrangi from Khandaan, Raka of Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai, Changez Khan from Halaku, Pyarelal from Kasauti, Malang Chacha from Upkar or JJ from Don!
Interestingly, he added ‘barkhurdaar’ to Hindi cinema’s dictionary, but nobody said it like Pran did.
Pran, brought to life some of the most memorable negative characters on the big screen
Pran wanted to be a photographer and worked as a trainee with A Das & Co in Delhi before becoming an actor.
Pran came to Mumbai from Lahore with his wife and one-year-old son Arvi
Pran’s first ever acting stint was as Sita in Madan Puri’s Ram, at a local Ramleela in Simla.
Pran debuted in a Punjabi film called Yamla Jat (1940) as a villain. It was a huge hit. The actor bagged the role when he was seen eating paan in a stylish way.
Pran hid the fact that he was an actor from his father, as he felt his parent would not approve of his choice of career. When his first interview appeared in a newspaper, Pran asked his sisters to hide the publication. But when his father finally learned of his career, he was not upset.
Pran did play a hero in Khandaan (1942); his heroine in the film was Noor Jehan.
Before Pran came to Mumbai, he had already acted in 22 films as a villain. Due to Partition, his career was paused briefly.
Pran bagged his first Hindi film role eight months after arriving in Mumbai – Shaheed Latif’s Ziddi (1948), starring Dev Anand and Kamini Kaushal. It was a hit and within a week of its release, he had signed three more films: SM Yusuf’s Grihasti, Prabhat Films’s Apradhi and Mohammad Wali’s Putli. However, BR Chopra’s Afsana in 1951 was Pran’s first biggest hit after he moved to Mumbai.
Actor Ashok Kumar and Pran were best friends and acted in more than 27 films together between 1951 and 1987.
Pran got his first positive role as the physically challenged Malang chacha in Manoj Kumar’s Upkar (1967).
Legend has it that such was his aura in the ’50s and ’60s that for almost a decade that Pran ruled the silver-screen as a baddie, parents feared naming their children ‘Pran’.
Pran worked on his make-up and added a personal touch to every character he played. He had an artist at home to sketch look he wanted and his make-up man and wig-maker would work on it.
Pran paid particular attention to his mannerisms as a villain – he would use a gesture to define every character he played. In Badi Bahen he created cigarette smoke rings, in Majboor he used his hands like binoculars to indicate his foreseeing danger and Raka the dacoit leader of Jis Desh Mein Ganaga Behti Hai would caress his neck as a premonition – suggesting that every bad man was secretly worried about a noose tightening around his neck.
15. Not many know that it was Pran who recommended Amitabh Bachchan to Prakash Mehra for Zanjeer, which was earlier offered to Dev Anand, Raj Kumar and Dharmendra. Pran went on to act with Amitabh in 15 films, including Kasauti, Don, Amar Akbar Anthony, Majboor, Dostana, Naseeb, Kaalia and Sharaabi.
One of the highest paid actors from 1969 to 1982, Pran was paid more than Amitabh Bachchan in the first six films they did together, Don being one of them. In the 1970s, only Rajesh Khannna was paid more than Pran. In the 1950s and 1960s, just Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor and Rajendra Kumar were paid more than Pran.
For those unversed in 1973 Pran did not accept the Filmfare award for :Beimaan” because he felt that the committee was unfair in giving the Best Music Director award to Shankar Jaikishan and not Ghulam Mohammed for his music in Pakeezah.
News Input K.V.Raman
