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Reverently called ''Dadamoni'' (affectionate term for elder brother), Kumudlal Ganguly was born in [[Bhagalpur]] and educated at [[Presidency College, Kolkata|Presidency College of the University of Calcutta]], Kolkata, where he studied to become a lawyer. However, his heart was not in his law studies. Ganguly was more interested in cinema, in which he dreamt of working as a technician. | Reverently called ''Dadamoni'' (affectionate term for elder brother), Kumudlal Ganguly was born in [[Bhagalpur]] and educated at [[Presidency College, Kolkata|Presidency College of the University of Calcutta]], Kolkata, where he studied to become a lawyer. However, his heart was not in his law studies. Ganguly was more interested in cinema, in which he dreamt of working as a technician. | ||
==Career and life== | |||
===Early career (1936–42)=== | |||
Kumudlal's father wanted him to become a lawyer and got him enrolled in a law college. However, Kumudlal failed his exams and, to escape acrimony at home, came to live with his sister in [[Mumbai]] for a few months, until the exams were held again. Kumudlal's sister Sati Devi had been married at a very young age to [[Sashadhar Mukherjee]], who lived in [[Chembur]] in Mumbai and worked in a fairly senior position in the technical department of [[Bombay Talkies]], a pioneering Indian film studio. Kumudlal wanted to earn some spending money for himself, and at his request, Sashadhar Mukherjee used his influence to get him a job as laboratory assistant at Bombay Talkies. This was in the early 1930s. The salary was quite decent; furthermore, Kumudlal was successful at his job and found the work interesting, which had not been the case with law college. | |||
Revision as of 10:31, 11 April 2021
Ashok Kumar | |
|---|---|
 Kumar in the 1943 movie Kismet | |
| Born | Kumudlal Kunjilal Ganguly 13 October 1911 |
| Died | 10 December 2001 (aged 90) Mumbai, Maharastra, India |
| Occupation | Actor, painter |
| Years active | 1936–1997 |
| Spouse(s) | Shobha Devi |
Ashok Kumar (Bengali: অশোক কুমার গাঙ্গুলী) (13 October 1911 – 10 December 2001) or Dadamoni was an Indian movie actor. The Government of India honored him with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1988 and the Padma Bhushan in 1998 for his work to the Indian cinema.
Kumar was born Kumudlal Ganguly in Bhagalpur, Bengal Presidency. Kumar died at the age of 90 in Mumbai from heart failure at his home in Chembur.
Background and family
Ashok Kumar was born Kumudlal Ganguly to a Bengali Hindu family in Bhagalpur, Bengal Presidency, British India (present-day Bihar, India).[1] His father, Kunjlal Ganguly, was a lawyer while his mother, Gouri Devi, was a home-maker. Kumudlal was the eldest of four children. His only sister, Sati Devi, a few years younger to him, was married at a very young age to Sashadhar Mukherjee and became the matriarch of a large "film family". Next was his brother, Kalyan, more than 14 years younger (b.1926), who later took the screen name Anoop Kumar. Youngest of all was Abhas (b.1929), whose screen name was Kishore Kumar, who became a phenomenally successful playback singer of Hindi films. Although the eldest by several years, Kumudlal outlived all his siblings. In fact, he stopped celebrating his birthday after his youngest brother, Kishore, died on that very day in 1987.
While still a teenager and well before he had even given thought to a career in films, the young Kumudlal was married to Shobha, a girl of his own Bengali Brahmin community and similar family background, in a match arranged by their parents in the usual Indian way.[2] Their lifelong marriage was a harmonious and conventional one, and despite his film career, the couple retained a very middle-class outlook and value system, bringing up their children with traditional values in a remarkably simple home. They were the parents of one son, Aroop Ganguly, and three daughters named Bharati Patel, Rupa Verma and Preeti Ganguly. Aroop Kumar Ganguly worked in only one film, appearing as hero in Bezubaan (1962), which flopped at the box office. He then made a career in the corporate world. The eldest daughter, Bharati Patel, is the mother of the actress Anuradha Patel. His second daughter, Rupa Verma, is the widow of the actor and comedian Deven Verma. The youngest daughter, Preeti Ganguly, was the only one among his daughters to enter the film industry. She acted as a comedienne in several Hindi films during the 1970s and 1980s and died unmarried in 2012.[3]
Kumudlal's daughter Bharati married twice. Her first marriage was to a Mr. Patel, a Gujarati gentleman. By this marriage, she had one daughter, the actress Anuradha Patel, who is married to the actor Kanwaljeet Singh. Later, and much against the wishes of all her relatives, Bharati married Hameed Jaffrey, a Muslim, the brother of the actor Saeed Jaffrey.[4] By this second marriage, Bharati also acquired step-daughters, Geneviève and Shaheen, who were Hameed's daughters by his first wife Valerie Salway, a woman of Scottish, Irish, Portuguese and Italian heritage.[5] Geneviève married a Sindhi businessman named Jagdeep Advani. Their daughter is actress Kiara Advani. Thus, Ashok Kumar has no blood relationship with Kiara Advani and she is not his great-granddaughter, as is sometimes rumoured.
Early years
Reverently called Dadamoni (affectionate term for elder brother), Kumudlal Ganguly was born in Bhagalpur and educated at Presidency College of the University of Calcutta, Kolkata, where he studied to become a lawyer. However, his heart was not in his law studies. Ganguly was more interested in cinema, in which he dreamt of working as a technician.
Career and life
Early career (1936–42)
Kumudlal's father wanted him to become a lawyer and got him enrolled in a law college. However, Kumudlal failed his exams and, to escape acrimony at home, came to live with his sister in Mumbai for a few months, until the exams were held again. Kumudlal's sister Sati Devi had been married at a very young age to Sashadhar Mukherjee, who lived in Chembur in Mumbai and worked in a fairly senior position in the technical department of Bombay Talkies, a pioneering Indian film studio. Kumudlal wanted to earn some spending money for himself, and at his request, Sashadhar Mukherjee used his influence to get him a job as laboratory assistant at Bombay Talkies. This was in the early 1930s. The salary was quite decent; furthermore, Kumudlal was successful at his job and found the work interesting, which had not been the case with law college.
Other websites
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- Ashok Kumar on IMDb
This short article about an actor or group of actors can be made longer. You can help Bharatpedia by adding to it.- ↑ "Ashok Kumar: Lesser Known Facts – The Times of India". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 28 March 2018. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
- ↑ "Home alone: Ashok Kumar". Archived from the original on 5 February 2008.
- ↑ "Veteran actor Ashok Kumar passes away". Economic Times. 10 December 2001. Archived from the original on 31 December 2013. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
- ↑ "ये रही हैं सलमान खान की पहली गर्लफ्रेंड, होते-होते रह गई दोनों की शादी!". bhaskar.com. 10 February 2016. Archived from the original on 18 September 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
- ↑ "Gene Junction: Kiara Alia Advani". vervemagazine.in. 2 February 2016. Archived from the original on 26 June 2019. Retrieved 27 March 2018.