Raaj Kumar

In a career that spanned over four decades, he went on to star in 70 films and is regarded as one of the most successful actors of Indian cinema.

Kulbhushan Pandit was born on 8 October, 1926 in Loralai in the Baluchistan Province of British India (now in Pakistan) into a Kashmiri Pandit family. In the late 1940s, he moved to Bombay, where he became a sub-inspector under Bombay Police. In the 1960s, he married Jennifer Pandit, an Anglo-Indian, whom he met on a flight where she was an air hostess. She later changed her name to Gayatri Kumar as per Hindu customs. They had three children, sons Puru Raaj Kumar (an actor), Panini Raaj Kumar and daughter Vastavikta Pandit, who made her screen debut in 2006 film Eight: The Power of Shani.

1950s: Early career and breakthrough

Raaj Kumar began his career with Rangeeli in 1952 and followed it with Anmol Sahar (1952), Aabshar (1953), Ghamand (1955), but all of them sank without a trace. He got his breakthrough in 1957 with Mehboob Khan's epic drama film Mother India. The film emerged an All Time Blockbuster at the box office and also the most successful film of the 1950s. The huge success of Mother India was followed by another blockbuster in 1959 with S. S. Vasan's social drama Paigham co-starring Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala. Kumar received praise for his performance of a caring elder brother and got a nomination in the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor category.

1960s: Rise to prominence

Kumar began the new decade with Kishore Sahu's romantic drama Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai. The film proved to be a box office hit with one of its song "Ajeeb Dastan Hai Yeh" sung by Lata Mangeshkar becoming a chartbuster. In 1961, he appeared alongside Rajendra Kumar and Asha Parekh in Gharana. A remake of Telugu blockbuster Shanthi Nivasam, the film proved to be equally successful in Hindi and emerged a superhit at the box office. After an absence lasting a year, he reunited with Rajendra Kumar and Meena Kumari for C. V. Sridhar's romantic drama Dil Ek Mandir. It opened to highly positive response from audience and went on to become a superhit with Kumar receiving Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the film. His other major releases of the year, including Godaan and Phool Bane Angaare also did decent business at the box office. The following year, he once again worked with Rajendra Kumar and Vyjayanthimala in Ramanand Sagar's second directional venture Zindagi. The film opened to positive response and added one more box office hit in his kitty.

Kumar died at the age of 69 on 3 July 1996 from throat cancer. According to his son Puru Raaj Kumar in his interview to Farhana Farook, his father suffered from Hodgkins for which he had undergone chemotherapy. The last two years of his life were bad with the nodes recurring in the lungs and ribs.