AK Hangal, Sanjeev Kumar.
Every character of Ramesh Sippy’s film ‘Sholay’, released in 1975, is still in the audience’s mind, whether it is Jai-Viru, Basanti-Radha or Gabbar. Another artist of this Cult Classic made a lot of headlines and he was the legend actor AK Hangal, who played the role of ‘Rahim Chacha’, Hangal of Indian cinema who started his film career at the age in which people begins to retire. AK Hangal, who won the hearts of the audience with his sensitive acting, was an excellent actor as well as a freedom fighter as well as the theater artist.
Career started at the age of 52
AK Hangal was 52 years old when he turned to films. Despite starting his career at this age, he worked in more than 250 films and in his career, he worked with all the stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Shashi Kapoor, Dharmendra to Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and earning the love of the audience. Even today, many of his dialogues are dominated on social media, one of which is ‘so much silence why brother’.
AK Hangal was a freedom fighter
AK Hangal’s full name was Avatar Kishan Hangal and he was also a freedom fighter. He worked as a tailor in the initial days and also fought for India’s independence between 1929 and 1947. During this, he had to spend 2 years in Karachi jail. The book ‘Life and Times of AK Hangal’ mentions many untouched aspects of his life, which are no less than any inspiration for people.
AK Hangal used to work as a tailor
There was a time when AK Hangal used to work as a tailor. A friend of his father advised him to become a tailor, after which he learned stitching from a tailor of England and started doing the same thing. Hangal was 52 years old when he entered films. His first film was ‘Third Kasam’, which was released in 1966. In this film, he played the role of Raj Kapoor’s elder brother. After 1966, he was continuously active in the film industry and acted in Hindi films till 2005. In his career, he acted in more than 250 films, including films such as Guddi, Sholay, Lagaan, Chef, and Paheli.
16 films with Rajesh Khanna
AK Hangal worked with all the big stars, but alone worked in 16 films along with Rajesh Khanna, including films like ‘Amar Deep’, ‘Aap Ki Kasam’, ‘Sautla Bhai’ and ‘Kudrat’. He also looted a lot of accolades by playing the role of Shambhu Kaka in Lagaan. Apart from this, he worked in TV shows. In 2006, he was also honored by the then President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam with Padma Bhushan and on 26 August 2012, he said goodbye to the world.
