Dara Singh

Today is the birth anniversary of Dara Singh , once the World Wrestling Champion ,who turned actor and acted in a number of films. In my growing years, when I was in school, three four names were always mentioned by my classmates, and among wrestlers,the names of Dara Singh , his brother Randhawa, and a rival King Kong were mentioned most of the time. He earned worldwide fame when he defeated King Kong . He won Commonwealth Wrestling Championship in 1959 by defeating George Gordienko at Calcutta and and the World Wrestling Championship in 1968 by defeating Lou Thesz at Bombay . He started his film career as early as 1952 when he acted in a film ‘Sangdil’. After doing stunts in many films, his first lead role came in ‘King Kong’, a movie made in 1962. Entering into a partnership with the actress Mumtaz in 1963, he did about 16 films with her. He acted as Bhim in the film Mahabharat and as Hanuman in the film ‘ Bajrangbali ‘ and also in the TV serial ‘Ramayan’.
In many of the lesser known films he enacted roles mostly suited to his strong body , good height and physique, as is suggested by the title of the films. These included ‘King Kong’ ,’ Rustam-E-Baghdad’ ,’Lootera’, ‘Rustam-E-Hind’, ‘Sikander-E-Azam’, ‘Daku Mangal Singh’ etc. etc. He also worked in well known films like ‘Mera Naam Joker’, ‘Anand’, ‘Aankhon Aankhon Mein’, ’ Lalkar’ , ‘Sultana Daku’, ‘Jehreela Insaaan’, ‘Dharam Karam’, ‘Dharmatma’ and last but not the least ‘Jab We Met’. He acted in Punjabi films also .
He directed films like ‘Nanak Dukhiya Sab Sansaar’, ‘Rustam’, ‘Sawa Lakh Se Ek Ladaoon ‘,’ Mera Desh Mera Dharam’ . He also produced ‘Bhakti Mein Shakti’ and ‘Karan’.
He was the first sportsperson to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha and served his term between 2003 and 2009.
Our humble tributes !