Dara Singh

Dara Singh Becomes No. 1 Action Star of Bollywood When Dara Singh became a name to reckon with in the wrestling world, Bollywood film-maker Babubhai Mistry, a famous stunt and fantasy filmmaker approached Dara Singh and cajoled him to act in his film King Kong (1962). Initially, Dara Singh was reluctant but when Babubhai Mistry enticed Dara Singh saying the movie was based on wrestling and captured his famous wrestling with King Kong, Dara Singh agreed. After doing the film Dara Singh heaved a sigh of relief and felt the job was over but to his utter surprise the film was a mega hit and Dara Singh was flooded with similar movies. What followed was a string of stunt films like Faulad, Rustom-E-Baghdad, Rustom-E-Hind, Boxer, Sher Dil, Jagga etc. A film was made in his name called Darasingh: Ironman (1964). The controversial romance between Dara Singh and Mumtaz Dara Singh made a sweet pair with Mumtaz and the two worked in as many as 16 films most being hits like Boxer (1965), Rustom-E-Hind (1965), Sikandar-E-Azam (1965), Tarzan and King Kong (1965), Tarzan Comes To Delhi (1965), Aandhi Aur Toofan (1964), Hercules (1964), Rustom-E-Hind (1964), Faulad (1963), Jawan Mard (1966) etc. The couple became the highest-paid B-grade actors, with Singh receiving nearly four lakh rupees per film. Since Dara Singh and Mumtaz worked in many films the gossip film magazine wrote juicy tales about their love affair but Dara Singh denied all of it. He said, “I had no time for romance as I was too busy in films, exercise and wrestling. I contributed four hours daily to exercise and the rest was focused on wrestling. Films were secondary to me.” Dara Singh earns fame in A-Grade films Dara Singh would have remained an unsung star if he had continued to be part of B-Grade action films had it not been for Raj Kapoor to discover him. Dara Singh recalled. “I am obliged to Raj Kapoor for giving me respectability in an A-grade film with his film Mera Naam Joker in which I played the Ring Master Sher Singh. Though Mera Naam Joker was a disaster it opened doors for me in A-grade film as Raj Sahab extracted a real actor in me.” Later many top filmmakers worked with Dara Singh like Hrishikesh Mukherjee in Anand, Feroz Khan in Dharmatma, Ramanand Sagar in Lalkaar, Manmohan Desai in Mard, Subhash Ghai in Karma, Imtiyaz Ali in Jab We met etc.