Raaj Kumar

Raaj Kumar Biography

Raaj Kumar was a Bollywood star of yesterdays most famous for her thunder voice and dialogues. Many hit dialogues of Raaj Kumar are still popular among his fans, particularly ‘Jaani’. His popular movies include Neel Kamal, Dil ek mandir, Waqt, Humraaz, Dil apna aur preeth paraye, Heer Ranja and Mother India. He did 60 Bollywood movies in his career. His son Puru Rajkumar has debut movies during 90’s, though failed to give an impact among audience.

Born as Kulbushan Pandit in October 8, 1926 he changed his name to Raaj Kumar for entering Bollywood. His first movie was Rangeeli in 1952. Before joining Bollywood, he was a sub-inspector of Mumbai police. According to reports, he never salutes his senior officers when he was in service. That may be the reason why his dialogues appear as thunder bolts whenever he delivered them on screen. After his first movie Rangeeli, he has done a few movies but not noticed by audience. He did the role of Nargis’ husband in the movie Mother India though the role was short, thus becoming the part of the biggest movie of Indian celluloid. His role of prince in the movie ‘Naushervan-e-Adil’ in 1957 made him a popular actor. Following it, Paigam became a hit where he was casted as less-glamorous role. After that big directors began to rope him for their movies. He played the eldest brother role of Yash Chopra’s Waqt – the first multi-star cast movie of Indian screen. He won supporting actor Filmfare for its wonderful performance. Another memorable performance was Dil Ek Mandir where he played the role of Meena Kumari’s husband. Rajendra Kumar played the leading role and for this movie, both were nominated in Filmfare in two categories. Raaj Kumar won it in supporting actor category. Rajendra Kumar couldn’t win it.

Neel kamal is a milestone movie in the career of Raj Kumar. He played along with Waheeda Rehman and Manoj Kumar and his role as a wandering ‘atma’ in search of his lover was well appreciated. The song ‘Tujhko pukare mera pyar’ was well noticed for its picturation. Other hit movies include Laal pathar, Maryada, Bulandi, Gharana, Ujaala, Zindagi, Phool bane angarey, Oonchey log, Kaajal, Humraaz, Mere Husoor, Khudrat, Tiranga and Saudagar. Meena Kumari has acted in majority of his movies as his co-star.

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Updated: May 21, 2018