K N Singh

Actor Prithviraj Kapoor introduced K.N. Singh into films Indian cinema’s most revered actor Prithviraj Kapoor, used to travel all over India and perform Theater. Once in Kolkata, Prithviraj Kapoor saw K.N. Singh and was impressed by his dashing and macho personality. He immediately took him to the legendary filmmaker D.K. Bose, who was regarded as A-Grade filmmaker and had made many hit films like Rajrani Meera, Life is a Stage, Seeta etc. K.N. Singh recalls, “D.K.Bose gave me a small doctor’s role in his film Sunehra Sansar (1936) on the recommendation of Prithviraj Kapoor. The film was hit and Bose was impressed by my talent and personality. Hence in his next film Hawaii Daku, he made me a hero but the film failed.” He added, “On the other hand my third film Ananthashram, in which I played a villain became super hit. Hence film legend A.R. Kardar signed me as a villain in film Vidyapati, opposite Prithviraj Kapoor in lead. The film broke all box office records and I was stereotyped as a villain.” Filmmaker A.R. Kardar employs K.N. Singh in his company Kardar Productions Overwhelmed by K.N. Singh’s genius as an actor and his sophistication as a person A.R. Kardar invited K.N. Singh to Mumbai and made him employee in his production house Kardar Production. Interestingly K.N. Singh’s first film for Kardar Production Baghban (1938) was golden jubilee hit. In this film too Singh played the villain. Later K.N. Singh became an independent actor and did many hit films in the 40’s like Sohrab Modi’s Sikandar (1941), Jwar Bhata (1944) (Dilip Kumar's film debut), Humayun (1945), Raj Kapoor’ Barsaat (1949). After this there was no looking back and K.N. Singh gave a string of hit films like Jaal (1952), CID (1956), Howrah Bridge (1958), Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958), Woh Kaun Thi? (1964), Amrapali (1966), An Evening in Paris (1967), Keemat (1973), Majboor (1974) , Aadalat (1976) , Agent Vinod (1977) etc