Dharamendra (HeMan of Indian Cinema)

 Dharmendra Biography

Dharamendra was voted as one of the top five handsome men in the world in the sixties. He was also known as the ‘he-man’ of Hindi cinema. He was the action hero, he was the romantic hero and one of the top actors of his time until politics came knocking.

Basics on Dharamendra
Dharamendra Kewal Krishen Deol was born on the 8th December 1935 in Punjab, India. He was born into an Arya Samaj Jatt family. His father was Kewal Krishen Deol, a school headmaster and his mother Satwant Kaur Deol, was a Sikh.

He married Prakash Kaur in 1954 and has two sons Sunny and Bobby, both of whom are actors and two daughters Ajeeta and Vijeta. At the time of his marriage he was working with an American Drilling Company.

In 1980 he converted to Islam to marry actress Hema Malini as his first wife refused to grant him divorce. His legal name after changing religion is Delawar Khan. He has two daughters with Hema Malini, Esha and Ahana. His daughter Esha Deol is an actress.

He was also involved with Meena Kumari with whom he worked in Phool Aur Pathar and many other movies.

The Filmfare spot the talent contest proved to be lucky for him as he was discovered and signed up by Arjun Hingorani in the sixties and there was no looking back as he became one of the most prominent faces in Bollywood for five decades, a fact that was recognized in 1997 when he was awarded the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award.

Personal life

Dharmendra maintained two relationships at same time . His first marriage was to Prakash Kaur at the age of 19 in 1954. His second marriage took place with actress Hema Malini. They are said to have fallen in love on the set of Sholay (1975) although they had made films together before. He married Hema while he was still married to his first wife Prakash Kaur. According to some reports, he converted to Islam before marrying her
From his first marriage, he has two sons, Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol who are also successful actors, and two daughters named Vijeeta and Ajeeta. From his second marriage to Hema Malini, Dharmendra has two daughters Esha Deol, who is an actress and Ahana Deol. Dharmendra was also romantically involved with his Phool Aur Patthar co-star Meena Kumari.
Dharmendra has gone on record saying he does not believe that the Mumbai film industry is a place suitable for girls. He was unperturbed by his sons Sunny and Bobby joining the industry, but was vocal about his displeasure regarding his daughter Esha's choice of profession

Filmfare Awards

Winner

• 1991 – Filmfare Award For Best Film/Producer for Ghayal
• 1997 – Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to Indian Cinema.

Dev Anand (Evergreen Star)

 Dharam Dev Anand (Hindi: धर्मदेव आनन्द) (born 26 September, 1923), better known as Dev Anand (Hindi: देव आनन्द), is an Indian Hindi Cinema actor, director and film producer. Dev is the second of three brothers who were active in Hindi Cinema. His brothers are Chetan Anand and Vijay Anand. Their sister, Sheel Kanta Kapur, is the mother of renowned Hindi and English film director Shekhar Kapur. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 2001 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2002 for his contributions towards Indian cinema.

Early life

Dev was born Dharam Dev Anand on 26 September, 1923 in Shakargarh Tehsil of Gurdaspur district (now in Narowal District, Pakistan) in undivided Punjab, British India to well-to-do advocate Kishorimal Anand. Dev is the second of three brothers born to Kishorimal Anand. Dev's younger sister is Sheela Kanta Kapur, who is mother of Shekhar Kapur. His older brother was Chetan Anand and younger one was Vijay Anand. Dev graduated in English literature from the Government College, Lahore, (now in Pakistan).

Filmfare Awards

• 1955 - Nominated Best Actor for Munimji
• 1958 - Winner Best Actor for Kalapani
• 1959 - Nominated Best Actor for Love Marriage
• 1960 - Nominated Best Actor for Kala Bazar
• 1961 - Nominated Best Actor for Hum Dono
• 1966 - Winner Best Film for Guide
• 1991 - Winner Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award
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International honors and recognitions

• In July 2000, in New York City, he was honoured by an Award at the hands of the then First Lady of the United States of America - Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton - for his 'Outstanding Contribution to Indian Cinema'. 
• In 2000, he was awarded the Indo-American Association "Star of the Millennium" Award in the Silicon Valley, California. 
• Donna Ferrar, Member New York State Assembly, honoured him with a "New York State Assembly Citation" for his 'Outstanding Contribution to the Cinematic Arts Worthy of the Esteem and Gratitude of the Great State of New York' on 1 May 2001. 
• In 2005, he was honoured with a "Special National Film Award" by the Government of Nepal at Nepal’s first NationIndian film festival in Stockholm.
• In 2008 he was guest of honour at a dinner hosted by the Provost of Highland Council in Inverness, Scotland to celebrate 10 years since he first worked in the Scottish Highlands. He spent several days in the area, en route to Cannes, as a guest of the Highlands and Islands Film Commission

Guru Dutt

Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone (Konkani: वसंत कुमार शिवशंकर पडुकोण}) (9 July 1925 – 10 October 1964), popularly known as Guru Dutt, was an Indian film director, producer and actor. He is often credited with ushering in the golden era of Hindi cinema. He made quintessential 1950s and 1960s classics such as Pyaasa (Thirsty), Kaagaz Ke Phool (Paper Flowers), Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (The King, the Queen and the Jack) and Chaudhvin Ka Chand (The Fourteenth Day Moon). In particular, Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool are now included among the greatest films of all time, both by Time magazine's "All-TIME" 100 best movies and by the Sight & Sound critics' and directors' poll, where Dutt himself is included among the greatest film directors of all time. He is sometimes referred to as "India's Orson Welles". In 2010, he was included among CNN's "top 25 Asian actors of all time".
He is most famous for making lyrical and artistic films within the context of popular Hindi cinema of the 1950s, and expanding its commercial conventions, starting with his 1957 film, Pyaasa. Several of his later works have a cult following. His movies go full house when re-released; especially in Germany, France and Japan. The latest book on him is Ten Years with Guru Dutt: Abrar Alvi's Journey by Sathya Saran based on the recollections of his chief scriptwriter and friend.

Death

On 10 October 1964, Guru Dutt was found dead in his bed in his rented apartment at Pedder Road in Mumbai. He is said to have been mixing alcohol and sleeping pills. His death may have been suicide, or just an accidental overdose. It would have been his third suicide attempt .
Guru Dutt's son, Arun Dutt views this as an accident in an interview with India Abroad in October 2004 on the 40th anniversary of his father's death. Guru Dutt had scheduled appointments the next day with actress, Mala Sinha for his movie, Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi, and Raj Kapoor to discuss making colour films. According to him, "my father had sleeping disorders and popped sleeping pills like any other person. That day he was drunk and had taken an overdose of pills, which culminated in his death. It was a lethal combination of excessive liquor and sleeping pills."
At the time of his death, Guru Dutt was involved in two other projects, Picnic starring actress, Sadhana and Director K. Asif's epic, Love and God. Picnic remained incomplete and Love and God was released two decades later with Sanjeev Kumar replacing Dutt in the leading role.
The extra-feature on DVD of Kaagaz Ke Phool, has a 3 part Channel 4 produced documentary on life and works of Guru Dutt titled, In Search of Guru Dutt.
Everyone, especially Abrar Alvi seem to suggest that it was a suicide. Abrar and Guru Dutt sat late that night discussing a movie and during conversation according to Alvi, Guru Dutt was very morbid in his thinking and conversation.
He was, according to many, distressed by his then personal situation - his wife, Geeta Dutt; Waheeda Rehman had distanced herself from him. He had a sleeping disorder that made him take sleeping pills, and he had been drinking since 5:00 pm that evening.

 

 

Raj Kapoor (Indian Charlee Chaplin)"The Show Man"

 Ranbir Raj Kapoor (Hindi: राज कपूर) Rāj Kapūr, 14 December 1924 – 2 June 1988), also known as The Show-Man, was an Indian film actor, producer and director of Hindi cinema. He was the winner of nine Filmfare Awards, while his films Awaara (1951) and Boot Polish (1954) were nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. His performance in Awaara, was ranked one of the "Top-Ten Performances of all time", by the Time Magazine. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 1971 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1987 for his contributions towards Indian cinema.

Early life and Background

Raj Kapoor was born in Peshawar, British India (present day Pakistan), to actor Prithviraj Kapoor and Ramsarni (Rama) Devi Kapoor (née Mehra). He was the eldest of six children in a Punjabi family. He was the grandson of Dewan Basheshwarnath Kapoor and great-grandson of Dewan Keshavmal Kapoor, part of the famous Kapoor family. Two of Raj's brothers are actors Shashi Kapoor (a.k.a. Balbir Raj Kapoor) and the late Shammi Kapoor (aka Shamsher Raj Kapoor); the other two died in infancy. He also had a sister named Urmila Sial.
Raj Kapoor attended Colonel Brown Cambridge School, Dehradun in the 1930s

Death

Raj Kapoor suffered from asthma in his later years; he died of complications related to asthma in 1988 at the age of 63. At the time of his death, he was working on the movie Heena (an Indo-Pakistan based love story). The film was later completed by his sons Randhir and Rishi Kapoor, and narrated by his brother Shammi Kapoor. The movie was released in 1991 and became a huge success at the Box Office. When he was given the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, where his brothers Shashi Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor were also present, the crowd was clapping around when President Venkataraman, who saw Kapoor's discomfort, came down the stage to give the award to the legend in the middle of thundering claps where he was breathing his last breath. And suddenly Kapoor collapsed, and was rushed to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences for treatment. The country's top cardiologists tried their best, but could not save him.

Shammi Kapoor (First Actor in Coloured Film)

Shammi Kapoor (Hindi: शम्मी कपूर; born Shamsher Raj Kapoor; 21 October 1931 – 14 August 2011) was an Indian film actor and director. He was a prominent lead actor in Hindi cinema from the late 1950s until the early 1970s.
Shammi Kapoor is hailed as one of the finest actors that Hindi cinema has ever produced. Extremely versatile as an actor, he was one of the leading stars of Hindi cinema during the late 1950s, the 1960s and early '70s. He made his Bollywood debut in 1953 with the film Jeevan Jyoti, and went on to deliver hits like Tumsa Nahin Dekha, Dil Deke Dekho, Junglee, Dil Tera Diwana, Professor, China Town, Rajkumar, Kashmir Ki Kali, Janwar, Teesri Manzil, An Evening in Paris, Bramhachari, Andaz and Vidhaata. He received the Filmfare Best Actor Award in 1968 for his performance in Brahmachari and Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for Vidhaata in 1982.

He was given the name Shamsher Raj Kapoor at his birth in Mumbai to film and theatre actor Prithviraj Kapoor and Ramsharni Kapoor née Mehra. Shammi was the second of the three sons born to Prithviraj (the other two being Raj Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor), both successful Bollywood actors. Though born in Mumbai, he spent a major portion of his childhood in Kolkata, where his father was involved with New Theatres Studios, acting in films. It was in Kolkata that he did his Montessory and Kindergarten. After coming back to Mumbai, he first went to St. Joseph's Convent (Wadala) and then, to Don Bosco School. He finished his matric schooling from New Era School at Hughes Road.
Kapoor had a short stint at Ruia College, in Matunga, Mumbai, after which he joined his father’s theatrical company Prithvi Theatres. He entered the cinema world in 1948, as a junior artiste, at a salary of Rs. 50 per month, stayed with Prithvi Theatres for the next four years and collected his last pay check of Rs. 300, in 1952. He made his debut in Bollywood in the year 1953, when the film Jeevan Jyoti was released. It was directed by Mahesh Kaul and Chand Usmani was Kapoor’s first heroine.

Death

Kapoor was admitted to Breach Candy Hospital, Mumbai on 7 August 2011 suffering from chronic renal failure. His condition remained serious for next few days and he was kept on ventilator support. He died on 14 August 2011, 05:15 am IST, of chronic renal failure, aged 79. Funeral was held on Monday, 15 August at Banganga cremation ground, Malabar Hill, Mumbai. Aditya Raj Kapoor, the actor's son, performed the last rites at the cremation. The entire Kapoor family were present to pay their last respects, including his younger brother Shashi Kapoor, sister in law Krishna Kapoor, grand nephew Ranbir Kapoor, nephews Rishi, Randhir and Rajiv, Randhir's wife Babita and grand nieces Karishma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor. Bollywood personalities Vinod Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha, Subhash Ghai, Amitabh Bachchan, Ramesh Sippy, Danny Denzongpa, Prem Chopra, Anil Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Govinda, Aamir Khan, Sharukh Khan, Kabir Bedi and Priyanka Chopra were among those who attended the funeral.

Dilip KUmar (Tregedy King)

Dilip Kumar was born Muhammad Yusuf Khan at Mohallah Khudadad, in Qissa Khwani Bazaar in Peshawar, British India (now Pakistan). He was born to a Pathan/Pakhtun Peshawari family with twelve children. His father, Lala Ghulam Sarwar, was a fruit merchant who owned large orchards in Peshawar and Deolali in Maharashtra near Nashik. The family relocated to Bombay (now Mumbai) in the 1930s and in the early 1940s Yusuf Khan moved to Pune and started a canteen business and supplying dried fruits.

In 1943, actress Devika Rani, who was also the wife of the founder of the Bombay Talkies film studio, Himanshu Rai, helped Khan's entry into the Bollywood film industry. Hindi Author Bhagwati Charan Varma gave him the screen name Dilip Kumar and gave him the leading role in his film Jwar Bhata (1944). Devika Rani and her husband Svetoslav Roerich spotted Khan in one of Pune's Aundh military canteens.

Kumar married actress and beauty queen Saira Banu in year 1966 when he was aged 44 and she was 22. His brothers are Nasir Khan, Ehsan Khan and Aslam Khan. Kumar's younger brother Nasir Khan was also an actor and appeared opposite him in Ganga Jamuna (1961) and Bairaag (1976).

Mohammed Yusuf Khan (Urdu: يوسف خان) (Hindi: यूसुफ़ ख़ान) (born 11 December 1922), popularly known with nickname Dilip Kumar (Hindi: दिलीप कुमार), is an Indian actor and a former Member of Parliament. He lives in Pali Hill, Bandra in Mumbai, India. He is commonly known as "Tragedy King", and is described as "the ultimate method actor" by Satyajit Ray.

Starting his career in 1944, Kumar's career has spanned five decades and over 60 films. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest actors in the history of Hindi Cinema Kumar was the first actor to receive a Filmfare Best Actor Award and holds the record for the most number of Filmfare Awards won for that category along with Shahrukh Khan; 8 wins. He starred in a wide variety of roles such as the romantic Andaz (1949), the swashbuckling Aan (1952), the dramatic Devdas (1955), the comical Azaad (1955), the historical Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and the social Ganga Jamuna (1961). In 1976, Kumar had a five-year break from film performances. In 1981, he returned with a character role in the film Kranti and continued his career playing central character roles in films such as Shakti (1982), Karma (1986) and Saudagar (1991). His last film was Qila in 1998. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 1991 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1994 for his contributions towards Indian cinema.

At the time of marriage, he was 44 and Saira Banu was 22.

Meena Kumari (Tragedy Queen)

Meena Kumari (1 August 1932 – 31 March 1972), born Mahjabeen Bano, was an Indian movie actress and poetess. She is regarded as one of the most prominent actresses to have appeared on the screens of Hindi Cinema. During a career spanning 30 years from her childhood to her death, she starred in more than ninety films, many of which have achieved classic and cult status today.
Kumari gained a reputation for playing grief-stricken and tragic roles, and her performances have been praised and reminisced throughout the years. Like one of her best-known roles, Chhoti Bahu, in Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962), Kumari became addicted to alcohol. Her life and prosperous career were marred by heavy drinking, troubled relationships, an ensuing deteriorating health, and her death from liver cirrhosis in 1972.
Kumari is often cited by media and literary sources as "The Tragedy Queen", both for her frequent portrayal of sorrowful and dramatic roles in her films and her real-life story.

Three weeks after the release of Pakeezah, Meena Kumari became seriously ill, and died on 31 March 1972 of liver cirrhosis. At her death, she was in more or less the same financial circumstance as her parents at the time of her birth: It is said that when she died in a nursing home, there was no money to pay her hospital bills. She was buried at Rahematabad Qabristan located at Narialwadi, Mazgaon, Mumbai.

Madhubala (Simple Beauty)

Personal Profile
Original Name:		Begum Mumtaz Jehan Dehlavi
Nick Name:		Venus Queen
Date of Birth (Birthday):		14 February, 1933
Date of Death:		23 February, 1969
Birth Place:		Delhi

Film Background:
Debut Film:  Baghdad Ka Chor
Famous Movies:  Jwala, Sharabi, Half Ticket, Boy Friend, Jhumroo, Passport, Mughal-E-Azam, Barsaat Ki Raat, Jaali Note, Mehlon Ke Khwab, Do Ustad, Insaan Jaag Utha, Kal Hamara Hai, Baghi Sipahi, Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Howrah Bridge, Kalapani, Phagun, Police, Ek Saal, Gateway of India, Yahudi Ki Ladki, Dhake Ki Malmal, Raj Hath, Shirin Farhad, Mr. & Mrs. '55, Naata, Naqab, Teerandaz, Amar, Bahut Din Huye, Armaan, Rail Ka Dibba, Sangdil, Saqi, Aaram, Badal, Khazana, Nadaan, Nazneen, Saiyan, Tarana, Beqasoor, Hanste Aansoo, Madhubala, Nirala, Nishana, Pardes, Apradhi, Daulat, Dulari, Imtihaan, Mahal, Neki Aur Badi, Paras, Singaar, Sipahiya, Amar Prem, Desh Sewa, Lal Dupatta, Parai Aag, Neel Kamal, Chittor Vijay, Dil-Ki-Rani (Sweet-Heart), Khubsoorat Duniya, Mere Bhagwan, Saat Samundaron Ki Mallika, Phoolwari, Pujari, Rajputani, Dhanna Bhagat, Mumtaz Mahal, Basant, Shaheed-E-Mohabbat, Baghdad Ka Chor.    

A commemorative stamp featuring the most sought after actress of the Fifties and the Sixties, Madhubala, is due to be released today.

Madhubala will be the second actress to have a postage stamp dedicated to her.

The other heroine was the late Nargis Dutt.

The affair between stamps and film personalities can be dated back to April 30, 1971, when a stamp with a denomination of 20 paisa was released to mark the birth centenary of Dadasaheb Phalke. Such commemorative stamps featuring celebrities does not come easy but involves almost two years of careful examination by the Philatelic Advisory Committee at the Department of Posts. The Department of Post also keeps a close check on the number of stamps featuring filmmakers released every year. Last year, the department released stamps of director Bimal Roy, Mehboob Khan, Ritwik Ghatak and SD Burman. Besides these, the departments has also issued stamps of personalities like Prithviraj Kapoor, Kundan Lal Saigal, Satyajit Ray, Dinanath Mangeshkar,
V Shantaram, Hemant Kumar, Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh and Guru Dutt,
with Madhubala being the latest to join them