Dara Singh

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who was once a soldier in second war, to learn the spiritual and practical realities of life. Dara Singh was charmed by wrestling since childhood Dara Singh grew in the lap of nature. He was born in a small village Dharmuchak, which was then a part of British Punjab and is now in Amritsar district of the Majha region of Panjab. The environment around was of playing kabaddi, Kusti (Wrestling), kite flying etc. Since Dara was denied school education he spent his day washing and taking care of cows and buffaloes, working at his farm fields and watching Kusti. Dara Singh in an interview said, “As a child when I saw wrestlers fighting I would be excited and then one day I jumped into the Akhada (Wresting ground) and emerged as a winner among the local boys. My ustaad (teacher) was very happy and thus began my journey as a wrestler.” Dara Singh tasted success in wrestling in Singapore At the age of 19, Dara Singh had grown into a towering personality. He was 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighed 127 kilograms and had a lion’s chest measuring 53 inches. His macho physique was tailor-made for a wrestler that’s when he decided to move out of India. To his fortune one of his uncle had came to India from Singapore. Dara Singh persuaded his uncle and along with him he escaped to Singapore. But when Dara Singh came to Singapore he was left dazed by the magnitude of wrestling played there. It was profession and money was pumped in huge scale like IPL matches these days. But the people in Singapore came to his rescue and helped him in becoming a profession wrestler. He defeated Tarlok Singh in Kuala Lumpur and became Champion of Indian Style Wrestling in Malaysia. Later Dara Singh took part in 500 professional wrestling and remained undefeated in all of them! Among his famous fights include the fight against 200kg King Kong of Australia when Dara Singh himself 130 kg lifted King Kong over his head and twirled him around. His other opponents include Bill Verna, Firpo Zbyszko, John Da Silva, Rikidōzan, Danny Lynch and Ski Hi Lee etc. He toured many far-east countries as a professional wrestler and returned to India in 1952 and became the Indian Wrestling Champion. Dara Singh won the title of Rustam-e-Punjab and Rustam-e-Hind for his wrestling prowess and he became the Commonwealth Wrestling Champion in 1959.

Dara Singh Becomes No. 1 Action Star of Bollywood When Dara Singh became a name to reckon with in the wrestling world, Bollywood film-maker Babubhai Mistry, a famous stunt and fantasy filmmaker approached Dara Singh and cajoled him to act in his film King Kong (1962). Initially, Dara Singh was reluctant but when Babubhai Mistry enticed Dara Singh saying the movie was based on wrestling and captured his famous wrestling with King Kong, Dara Singh agreed. After doing the film Dara Singh heaved a sigh of relief and felt the job was over but to his utter surprise the film was a mega hit and Dara Singh was flooded with similar movies. What followed was a string of stunt films like Faulad, Rustom-E-Baghdad, Rustom-E-Hind, Boxer, Sher Dil, Jagga etc. A film was made in his name called Darasingh: Ironman (1964). The controversial romance between Dara Singh and Mumtaz Dara Singh made a sweet pair with Mumtaz and the two worked in as many as 16 films most being hits like Boxer (1965), Rustom-E-Hind (1965), Sikandar-E-Azam (1965), Tarzan and King Kong (1965), Tarzan Comes To Delhi (1965), Aandhi Aur Toofan (1964), Hercules (1964), Rustom-E-Hind (1964), Faulad (1963), Jawan Mard (1966) etc. The couple became the highest-paid B-grade actors, with Singh receiving nearly four lakh rupees per film. Since Dara Singh and Mumtaz worked in many films the gossip film magazine wrote juicy tales about their love affair but Dara Singh denied all of it. He said, “I had no time for romance as I was too busy in films, exercise and wrestling. I contributed four hours daily to exercise and the rest was focused on wrestling. Films were secondary to me.” Dara Singh earns fame in A-Grade films Dara Singh would have remained an unsung star if he had continued to be part of B-Grade action films had it not been for Raj Kapoor to discover him. Dara Singh recalled. “I am obliged to Raj Kapoor for giving me respectability in an A-grade film with his film Mera Naam Joker in which I played the Ring Master Sher Singh. Though Mera Naam Joker was a disaster it opened doors for me in A-grade film as Raj Sahab extracted a real actor in me.” Later many top filmmakers worked with Dara Singh like Hrishikesh Mukherjee in Anand, Feroz Khan in Dharmatma, Ramanand Sagar in Lalkaar, Manmohan Desai in Mard, Subhash Ghai in Karma, Imtiyaz Ali in Jab We met etc.