Pran passes away @ 93

[Saddle Bronc 124]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23300474

Veteran Bollywood villain Pran dies

2013/07/13 10:41 ET

Pran received India's prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke award in May

Veteran Indian film actor Pran Krishan Sikand, popularly known as Pran, has died in Mumbai at the age of 93.

Pran was famous for playing the part of the villain in Hindi films, in a career that stretched more than six decades.

Between the 1960s and 1980s, he appeared in nearly every major Bollywood film, elevating the role of the villain to cult status.

He won many honours throughout his career, including the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award.

Pran Krishan Sikand came to Mumbai from what is now Pakistan. (nice try, BBC -- his bio states he was born in New Delhi, never part of Pakistan) A chance encounter with a screenwriter is said to have led him to his first role in a Punjabi film, Yamla Jat, in 1940.

Moving to India after partition (see above, both Delhi region and Mumbai have been in India prior to 1947/08/13 and post 1947/08/15), he started out as the main protagonist. But after excelling as a villain, he was almost invariably cast in such roles.

He played in more than 350 films, including the blockbusters of their day.

Most famously, he played opposite Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan in the 1973 film Zanjeer, in which Pran underwent a dramatic transformation into a good man.