Ashok Kumar

Ashok Kumar (Bengali: অশোক কুমার গাঙ্গুলী) (13 October 1911 – 10 December 2001), Born Kumudlal Ganguly (Bengali: কুমুদলাল গাঙ্গুলী) and also fondly called Dadamoni, (Bengali: দাদামণি) was an Indian film actor who attained iconic status in Indian cinema. He was honoured in 1988 with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest national award for cinema artists, by the Government of India and also received the Padma Bhushan the same year in 1998 for his contributions to Indian cinema. He is considered to be one of India's finest ever actors, playing leading, negative and character roles with equal panache.

Ashok Kumar was born Kumudlal Ganguly in Bhagalpur, then in the Bengal Presidency and now lying in Bihar. His father, Kunjlal Ganguly, was a lawyer while his mother, Gouri Devi, was a home-maker. Kumudlal (as he was then known) was the eldest of four children. A couple of years younger to him was his only sister, Sati Devi, who was married at a very young age to Sashadhar Mukherjee and became the matriarch of a large "film family". More than fourteen years younger than Kumudlal was his next brother, Kalyan (b.1926), who later took the screen name Anoop Kumar, and youngest of all was Abhas (b.1929), whose screen name was Kishore Kumar and who became a phenomenally successful playback singer of Hindi films. Although the eldest of the three brothers by several years, Ashok Kumar outlived his siblings. In fact, he stopped celebrating his birthday after his youngest brother, Kishore, died on that very day (Ashok's birthday) in 1987.

The young Kumudlal was married to Shobha early into his acting career in a match arranged by their parents. Their lifelong marriage was a harmonious and conventional one, and despite his film career, the couple retained a middle-class outlook and value system, bringing up their children in a remarkably simple home. They were the parents of one son named Aroop Ganguly and three daughters named Bharati Patel, Rupa Verma and Preeti Ganguly. His eldest daughter, Bharati Patel, is the mother of the actress Anuradha Patel. His second daughter, Rupa Verma, is the wife of the actor and comedian Deven Verma. His youngest daughter, Preeti Ganguly, was the only one of his children to enter the film industry. She acted as a comedienne in several Hindi films during the 1970s, and died unmarried in 2012.


ASHOK KUMAR'S FILMOGRAPHY WITH SUPER STAR RAJESH KHANNA :

1. Mamta Ki Chhaon Mein - (1990)
2. Awaam - (September 11, 1987)
3. Shatru - (August 15, 1986)
4. Durga - (February 8, 1985)
5. Amar Deep - (May 18, 1979)
6. Janta Hawaldaar - (April 27, 1979)
7. Anurodh - (1977)
8. Aakraman - (1975)
9. Prem Nagar - (May 24, 1974)
10. Maalik - (1972)
11. Anuraag - (1972)
12. Dil Daulat Duniya - (1972)
13. Safar - (1970)
14. Aradhana - (1969)