Entertainment: Pran is playing the role of ‘Malang Chacha’ in the movie ‘Upakar’. He played it so beautifully that the role became immortal. Pran’s film journey started from Lahore in 1940 with the Punjabi film ‘Yamla Jatt’. His first Hindi film was Khandaan in 1942.
It had ‘Dev Anand’ and ‘Kamini Kaushal’ in lead roles. Pran Saheb was not a new artist. He came to Lahore with so much work and fame that Partition put a brake on his career. He relaunched in India with the film ‘Jiddi’. ‘Jiddi’ became a superhit and launched his career. After that, throughout his life, Pran Saheb had no shortage of films. He had done so well as a villain that he created ‘hatred’ in people’s minds towards himself through the role.
On the other hand, Manoj Kumar took a big risk and gave Pran Saheb a positive role in ‘Upakar’, noting his image, but his acting, expressing his faith in his talent. He played it so beautifully that the role became unforgettable. After that he tried many different things like acting, different look, different getup, voice modulation. I mean he did negative, positive, even comedy. He did comedy in many films like ‘Victoria No 203’, ‘Sadhu Aur Shaitan’.
But this incident proves how emotional Pran was and how much he cared about his relationship. It was the year 1997, when Rishi Kapoor retired from acting and ventured into directing. When it came time to cast, a lot of thought was given to the role of Akshay Khanna’s grandfather, the hero of the film. It was a very important role. After considering many names, Rishi Kapoor said that we will take Pran Saheb. At that time ‘RK’ studio had completed fifty years and he also had a family relationship with Pran Saheb.
Everyone was very excited with this idea and went to meet Pran Saheb at his house. Very happy to meet Pran Saheb. He loved Rishi Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor a lot, all of them also respected Pran. Pran was happy to hear that ‘RK’ Studio is completing fifty years. Rishi Kapoor was then congratulated and blessed for success in his new venture.
Later, when Rishi Kapoor asked for the role of grandfather, Pran said, ‘I will not act in your film.’ Everyone present was shocked to hear this. Pran added, ‘I can’t tell you the reason.’ Listen to the story, if you don’t like the story, don’t act.’
To this, Pran said, “No, I will not do the film at all. Look Chintu! I am old and my health is not good. If something happens to me in the middle of the shoot, how will I go up and tell Raj Kapoor that I have damaged your children. So I am doing your film.” Will not. My blessings are with you.”
Pran also helped Raj Kapoor once. His fee used to be higher than that of a hero but he signed Raj Kapoor’s ‘Bobby’ for just one rupee. At that time, Raj Kapoor was struggling with financial crisis. In view of this, Pran did not charge any fees.
Pran won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award three times. He was honored with the Filmfare Life Time Achievement Award in 1997. Pran was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2001 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in the same year for his contribution to Hindi cinema. Pran acted in more than 350 films. Pran breathed his last in 2013 at the age of 93.