LEGENDARY Bollywood actor Pran Krishan Sikand, popularly known as only Pran, died on Friday evening in Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital. He was 93.

Pran was given the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for his contribution to Indian cinema last year. Pran played roles of a movie villain and character actor in Hindi cinema from the 1940s to the 1990s.

He acted in nearly 400 movies, his first being Yamla Jat in 1945. Pran is survived by his wife Shukla Sikand and three children.

He acted as a hero from 1940 to 1947, as a villain from 1942 to 1991 and played supporting and character roles from 1948 to 2007.

In a long and prolific career he appeared in 361 films.

Pran played the leading man in films like Khandaan (1942), Pilpili Saheb (1954) and Halaku (1956). Villanious roles in films like Bari Behen (1949), Azaad (1955), Jis Desh Men Ganga Behti Hai (1960) and Johny Mera Naam endeared him to film lovers of all ages. He is remembered for making the role of the villain as important as that of the hero.

Pran’s most memorable supporting role was that of the red-haired Pathan Sher Khan in Zanjeer, the 1973 movie that turned Amitabh Bachchan into a big star.He is credited with giving Bachchan his biggest break, having recommended that director Prakash Mehra cast him as inspector Vijay in Zanjeer. He received numerous awards and honours in his career. Stardust conferred on him the “Villain of the Millennium” honour in 2000. The Indian government honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 2001 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award this year. In 2010, he was named on the list of CNN’s top 25 Asian actors of all time.

By arrangement with Times of India