Asian Mail
Mumbai: In the fifties and sixties, whenever filmmakers needed the role of a king, emperor, prince or nawab for their films, they remembered Pradeep Kumar.
Popular Hindi and Bengali film actor Pradeep Kumar is remembered as an actor who entertained audiences with his historical roles in the 1950s and 60s.
The best films like Anarkali, Taj Mahal, Bahu Begum and Chitralekha with his charming acting have not been forgotten by the audience even today.
Sheetal Batavali alias Pradeep Kumar was born in West Bengal on January 4, 1925 in a Brahmin family.He dreamed of acting in films since his childhood. To fulfill his same dream, he joined the theater in his early life.However, his father was not satisfied with this.
In the year 1947, Pradeep Kumar met director Devaki Bose, who gave him an opportunity to work in his Bangla film “Alakanda”.
Pradeep Kumar may not have made a name for himself as an actor with Alakanda, but his film career definitely took off from here. Meanwhile, he acted in another Bangla film ‘Bholi Nai’.
The film was a huge success and the film celebrated its silver jubilee, after which he turned to Hindi cinema and to realize his dream, he came to Mumbai in 1949 where he started working as an assistant to cameraman Dhiran Dey.
Pradeep Kumar was so obsessed with acting that he started learning Hindi and Urdu. In 1952, he got an opportunity to play the hero in the film ‘Anand Math’. Great actors were also present. After the success of this film, he was able to make a mark as an actor in Hindi films.
In the year 1953, Pradeep Kumar played the role of Prince Salim in the film ‘Anarkali’, which was a hit with the audience and also made him the first choice of producers and directors for historical films. After the success of the film ‘Nagan’ released in the year 1954, he became the favorite actor of the fans. The songs of this film ‘Man Dole Meera Tan Dole, Meera Dil Yeh Pukare Aja’ are still very popular among the audience.
The year 1956 proved to be the most important year of Pradeep Kumar’s film career. He had ten films released that year, including Shri Farhad, Jagte Raho, Durgesh Dini, Bandhan, Rajnath and Heer. Pradeep Kumar followed with Ek Jhalak (1957), Adalat (1958), Aarti (1962), Chitralekha (1964), Bheegi Raat (1965), Raat Aur Din, Bahu Begum (1967) enthralled the audience by showing the essence of her acting.
To avoid monotony in acting and to establish himself as a character actor, he played various roles. After this, Pradeep Kumar starred in Mehboob Ki Mehndi (1971), Samjhauta (1973), Do Anjaane (1976), Dharma. He ruled the hearts of the audience with several super hit films like Veer (1977), Khatameetha (1978), Kranti (1981), Razia Sultan (1983), Dunya (1984), Miradharam (1986), Waris (1988). Pradeep Kumar, who made a special mark in the hearts of the audience with his unparalleled acting for a decade, said goodbye to this world on 27 October 2001.
