Pradeep Kumar

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Rebelled against father and joined films Pradeep Kumar was born in an orthodox Bengali family. His father was a district magistrate and grandfathers the founder of Sanskrit College. Thus the family was well read and his parents wanted Pradeep Kumar to continue the legacy but young Pradeep Kumar had penchant for films and was an avid fan of actor Ashok Kumar (Super Star of the 40). Every Friday he would watch movies and secretly dream of joining films. After completing his basic education he declared his ambition to make a career in films. He was just 17 year when he had a clash with his father and run away to Kolkata city to make a career in films.

Unsung romance between Pradeep Kumar and Meena Kumari Pradeep Kumar and Meena Kumari worked together in many films and were the most popular pair in the 60’s. It’s reported during the making of Rajshri productions Aarti (1962) they two came close and romance bloomed. It was those days when Meena Kumari was passing through a lean phase in her married life and frequent quarrels between her and her husband Kamal Amrohi had made her life disastrous. At this juncture she found solace in the company of Pradeep Kumar. Incidentally Aarti proved a big hit and their Jodi became popular. Soon films like ChitraLekha (1964), Bheegi Raat(1965), Bahu Begam (1967), Noor Jehan (1967) became huge hit but by the late 70’s Meena Kumari got attracted to another handsome actor Dharmendra and the Pradeep Kumar and Meena Kumari romance came to an abrupt end.

Join films as Assistant Cameraman Pradeep Kumar began his career as Assistant Cameraman with Anurag Studios. But destiny had something else in store for him. Hence soon he graduated from Assistant Cameraman to a hero. Recalling his early days Pradeep Kumar in an interview said, “One day when I was engaged as Assistant Cameraman and shooting a scene, suddenly somebody called me and asked me to become an actor, I nodded. He was great filmmaker Debaki Bose who gave me my first break in films as an actor in the Bengali film Alaknanda (1947).” He added, “The movie was a great success and looking at my personality and my potential as an actor Debaki Bose encouraged me to shit to Mumbai, which was a hub of film fraternity. Taking his advice seriously I moved to Mumbai.” Difficult days in Mumbai; Masters Urdu language When Pradeep Kumar landed in Mumbai he had to struggle a lot to find work in films. He was initially discarded for his poor knowledge in Urdu, which was a key factor for every actor in those days to know since most of the dialogues were penned in Urdu. Hence he toiled hard. Hired an Urdu teacher and perfected his nuances in Urdu ad Hindi. Eventually he got his first break in Bollywood’s most reputed film Company Filmistan Studio. The movie was Anand Math (1952) staring top stars like Prithviraj Kapoor, Bharat Bhushan and Geeta Bali. The film had the hit patriotic song Vande Mataram sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Hemant Kumar. In this movie Pradeep Kumar played the serious role of Jivanand, who sacrifices his life for the country. The role had intensity and patriotic emotions which Pradeep Kumar brought out brilliantly. In addition Pradeep Kumar worked hard on his diction and dialogue delivery that made the critics sit back and take him seriously. Pradeep Kumar delivers his first hit film Anarkali With the success of Anand Math, Filmistan Studio owner S. Mukherjee took a gamble and made Pradeep Kumar the lead hero in his next home production Anarkali opposite top heroine of that era Bina Rai. The high point of this role was that this was Pradeep Kumar’s First film in which he played a princely character. He played Mughal Prince Salim. What’s more a similar role was being played by Superstar Dilip Kumar in the upcoming film Mughal-e-Azam. Hence Pradeep Kumar was under pressure to deliver the best. Luckily Mughal-e-Azam got delayed and Anarkali was released early. The movie was a box office blockbuster! Pradeep Kumar excelled as Prince Salim so much that he became a permanent feature in others movies to come. Despite Anarkali’s success Pradeep Kumar had ‘No’ work! It may come as a surprise but it’s true that after the mega success of Anarkali, Pradeep Kumar was without work! In an interview Pradeep Kumar lamented the harsh attitude of film industry, “The film industry is a harsh place. There is no sympathy for others. I learned the bitter truth after the success of Anarkali. Though the movie minted money I was left with no work as all the credit for the film’s success went to its superlative music. For nine months I had no work and I had no money to even purchase milk for my children. I was really a disgusting phase of my life. I learned the lesson of saving and began investing my money in right place.” Pradeep Kumar becomes a Star After a nine months gap of no work Pradeep Kumar finally got his next big film Nagin opposite the then superstar heroine Vyjayanthimala. The unusual love story of a tribal girl falling with a rich man son, who disguises as a tribal and tries to win her love, was applauded by the masses. Like Anarkali, once again the music of Nagin, was its major strength but this time the movie’s success opened doors of stardom for Pradeep Kumar and he was given approached by top notch filmmakers like directors like Raj Kapoor for his film Jagte Raho (1956) and V Shantaram in Subah Ka Tara (1956) Shantaram.