In the film Lakhon Mein Ek, the truck driver Sher Singh—enacted by legendary Bollywood villain Pran who passed on Friday—says he is from village Bharowal, post office Sailakhurd, district Hoshiarpur, thus immortalising the quaint hamlet located on the foothills of the Shivalik range in Punjab.
Pran was born in Bharowal. On Friday as news of the actor’s death reached the village, residents made their way to Pran’s former ancestral home. His extended family had shifted to Delhi in 1975.
Talking about his childhood friend, 93-year-old Hari Singh describes him as a “large-hearted” man. “Even as a child he was interested in acting and photography and use to tell me that he would become an actor or photographer one day. He was very witty and full of life. We played together as kids. He left the village for good when he was five as his government servant father moved to Delhi,” said Singh.
Breaking down, the old man recalled when Pran came back to the village in 1935 for his sister’s wedding. “In 1975 I went to Mumbai for the first time in my life on his invitation and stayed with him for a few days,” he said.
Singh says his family takes care of Pran’s ancestral home now. For others, Pran was the famous son of the village. “We knew he belonged here, but since he hardly visited, younger generation knew little much about him.”
Born Pran Kishan Sikand in 1920, Pran’s debut film was the Punjabi movie Yamla Jat in 1940. In a career spanning six decades, Pran featured in more than 350 films, including blockbusters such as Zanjeer, Don and Amar Akbar Anthony. He was one of the highest-paid Bollywood actors in the 70s and 80s.
Pran was educated at places like Kapurthala, Unnao, Meerut, Dehradun and Rampur as his father Lala Kewal Krishnan Sikand was in government service. On August 15, 1947 during partition, Pran was in Lahore and as the situation worsened, he along with his wife Sukla and son Arvind, fled to Indore to his wife’s sister’s place.
- The Sunday Standard