KOLKATA, Dec 10: Ashok Kumar, who died on Monday after a prolonged illness, enjoyed a glittering career spanning over six decades.

When Ashok Kumar began his career in cinema, German director Franz Osten wrote him off at the very outset.

“You will never make it in films because of your tremendous jaw,” the famed director of the classical hit “Achut Kanya” had told Kumar. The year was 1936.

During the shooting for “Achut Kanya”, in which Kumar played the male lead, Osten hauled up the newcomer numerous times. The nervous Kumar was at his wit’s end.

Sixty-five years later and with more than 270 films to his credit, Kumar emerged as one of India’s celluloid legends. Far from Osten’s assessment, the argument now is whether Kumar was not Indian cinema’s most enduring lead actor.

Be it the handsome, soft-spoken lover or the middle-aged crook or later still the affable grandfather, Kumar not only left an indelible mark on the big screen but also won millions of fans as a singer in his earliest films. The song “Mein Ban Ki Chidiya” he sang for “Achut Kanya” was a rage in its time.

Kumar’s entry into acting appears to have been accidental. A science graduate, he became a film buff and wanted to make a career as a director. In 1934, he used his examination fee of Rs.35 for a law degree to buy a ticket for Mumbai. He landed up at the Bombay Talkies, then the nerve-centre of India’s film world.

He was hired by Bombay Talkies owner Himanshu Rai for Rs 150 as a trainee technician and a camera assistant. Months later, he became a laboratory assistant and his salary rose to Rs 250.

In 1936, when Rai was producing “Jeevan Naiya”, the original hero of the film Najmul Hussein failed to turn up for shooting. Rai asked Kumar to don the make-up. “Jeevan Naiya” was a runaway hit.

Kumar’s success was confirmed with his next film “Achut Kanya”. The astounding success of the film, considered a classic of all times, turned the pair of Kumar and Devika Rani, that had also appeared in “Jeevan Naiya”, into a hit combination.

Film critics say Kumar’s acting career can be clearly divided into three phases. The days of the handsome, soft-spoken romantic hero in enduring films like “Kismet” and “Kangan”, the years as tough-talking hero in films like “Sangram,” “Mahal,” “Samadhi” and “Howrah Bridge” and finally the character actor in films like “Aashirwad,” “Mili,” “Khoobsurat” and “Shaukeen.”

Born Kumudlal Kunjilal Ganguly at Bhagalpur, Bihar, in 1911, Ashok Kumar was the oldest of the three famous Ganguly brothers - Ashok, Anup and Kishore Kumar.

Ashok Kumar spent his early years in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh. After studying law in Kolkata, he joined Sashadhar Mukherjee’s Bombay Talkies as a studio hand. When the boss asked him if he wanted to act in a film, Ashok Kumar took up the offer as a lark.

His first film was “Jeevan Naiya” in 1936 in which he was cast opposite the co-owner of Bombay Talkies, Devika Rani. This was the first of their several landmark hits together. At a time when other actors were busy mastering the art of over-expression, Ashok Kumar developed and honed a naturalistic brand of acting which held him in good stead as he graduated from screen heroism to character acting in the 1960s.

Even in his later years Ashok Kumar continued to be synonymous with effortless emotive energy. Some of the country’s most accomplished filmmakers like the late Bimal Roy and Hrishikesh Mukherjee worked repeatedly with this truly evergreen actor to create such enduring classics as Roy’s “Parineeta” and “Bandini” and Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s “Aashirwaad” and “Satyakam.”

‘KISMET’: His most famous role and film remains “Kismet”, the 1943 blockbuster directed by Gyan Mukherjee in which he starred as a pickpocket who transforms into a social animal. Kumar’s Hollywood-inspired rakish performance remains to this day a role model for acting schools in India.