The country had just become independent and such an actor was born in Hindi cinema, who could not only play the pain and problems of the common man on screen but also make people cry with his dialogues. We are talking about Balraj Sahni, who on one hand made films on the social hierarchy and on the other hand emerged as a professional actor. The actor’s birth anniversary is on 1st May.
For Balraj Sahni, morality and social concerns were an important part of his public life not only in films but also in real life. On screen, he did social films like ‘Dharti Ke Lal’, ‘Do Bigha Zameen’, ‘Kabuliwala’ and ‘Garm Hawa’ but on the other hand he also did commercial films like ‘Anuradha’, ‘Waqt’, ‘Sangharsh’ and ‘Ek Phool Do Mali’.
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In ‘Do Bigha Zameen’, Balraj played the character of a person named Shambhu Mahato, who is a poor rickshaw puller. During the casting of the film, director Bimal Roy was looking for a good actor for this role, who could portray the plight and helplessness of a poor person on screen. First the roles were offered to Ashok Kumar, Trilok Kapoor and Nazir Hussain but then Bimal Roy saw the role played by him in Balraj Sahni’s film ‘Hum Log’ and he was impressed by him to a great extent. He liked the character so much that he sent an invitation to the actor to meet him. Then Balraj Sahni arrived to meet the director in black suit-boots.
Seeing Balraj in a suit, the director was shocked because he was looking very handsome and it did not seem that he could play the role of a poor rickshaw puller. He told the actor that you do not fit in the character for which you have been selected. The actor asked the director to watch the film ‘Dharti Ke Lal’, in which he played the role of an unhappy and helpless elder son named ‘Niranjan’. Then what, ‘Do Bigha Zameen’ fell into the actor’s lap as soon as he saw the film.
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