Profile

Name: Avtar Kishan Hangal
DOB: 01 February, 1914
Star sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Sialkot, British India
Occupation: Indian freedom fighter, stage and film actor
Labelled as: Stunt-film heroine

Achievements:

• A.K Hangal’s most notable roles are in Aaina, Shaukeen, Namak Haraam, Sholay, Manzil, Prem Bandhan and the 16 films he did with Rajesh Khanna.

• He has acted in around 225 Hindi films in a career spanning from 1966 to 2005.

• The government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan for his contribution to Hindi Cinema in 2006.

Interesting facts:

• Born into a Kashmiri pandit family, A.K Hangal spent his childhood and youth in Peshawar, where he had performed in theatre for some major roles. His family home was inside Reti Gate as mentioned in his memoirs. He had two sisters.

• His primary occupation for the early part of his life was that of a tailor. He was an active participant in the Indian freedom struggle from 1929–1947. He joined Shree Sangeet Priya Mandal, a theatre group in Peshawar in 1936 and continued to act in many plays in undivided India till 1946.

• The family then moved to Karachi where Hangal was jailed for being a communist. He then moved to Bombay following the Partition in 1949 after three years in prison in Pakistan.

• He was involved with the theatre group IPTA along with Balraj Sahni and Kaifi Azmi. He started his Hindi film career at the age of 52 with Teesri Kasam in 1966 and Shagird, and went on to play as the man of principles, playing the on-screen father or uncle of the leading men/women in the films in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, or sometimes the quintessential meek and oppressed old man.

• On 8 February 2011, Hangal walked the ramp in a wheelchair for fashion designer Riyaz Ganji for his summer line in Mumbai.

• Hangal made his last appearance in the television series Madhubala – Ek Ishq Ek Junoon in May 2012, where he had a cameo, which was a tribute to 100 years of Indian cinema.

• The actor had last shot for Amol Palekar's film, Paheli in 2005. In fact, he had not gone out of his house for the last eight months. "We were surprised to see him get out of home. He would have done it only for acting," said his son Vijay.

• He is also related to India's first Prime Minister, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru. Panditji's wife, Kamla Nehru, was first cousin of A.K.Hangal's mother.