Before Playing Hanuman In Ramayana, Dara Singh Was The Highest-Paid B-Grade Actor ( Photo Credit – IMDb )
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The entire country is immersed in Ram Bhakti right now, and we decided to bring some interesting stuff about the actor who played the biggest Ram Bhakt on-screen – Dara Singh. The Punjabi Pahalwan turned actor, who was given the title of Rustam-E-Hind, was one of the highest-paid actors of B-grade Bollywood films.
The actor was approached to play Ram Bhakt Hanuman for Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan, where he was paid almost 35 lakh for the TV series. However, guess how much was he paid to star in B-grade Bollywood films?
Well, according to various reports, Dara Singh was paid 4.5 lakh for every Bollywood film he did in those days. During the 60s and 70s, he starred in almost 16 films with the actress Mumtaaz. Some of them earned a superhit tag. He earned almost 72 lakh doing these 16 films with Mumtaaz.
In one of her interviews with Rediff, Mumtaaz confessed, “I still remember the time I started working with him in films. I was just 15 years old when I did my first film, Faulad, in 1963, opposite Dara Singh. During those days, the films we worked together on were considered B-grade. I was the only actress who agreed to work with him because no big hero of that time wanted to work with me. I didn’t have much to do in these films as it was all about him. People really looked forward to seeing him on screen. But the sad part is that he was never taken seriously as an actor.”
The 1 crore film
While Dara Singh started his film career as an actor in 1952 with a film titled Sangdil, his first superhit was with Mumtaaz in 1965. The film was called Sikandar-E-Azam, where Dara Singh played Alexander, and it collected 1 crore at the box office. A rare achievement in those days.
He switched gears and started doing supporting roles in films like Mera Naam Joker and Anand. Later, he starred as Lord Hanuman in a film called Bajrangbali in 1976. This was followed by a string of religious films, including Har Har Mahadev, Bhakti Mein Shakti, and more.
Dara Singh’s career in films took another turn after he starred as Lord Hanuman in the 1987 TV Series Ramayan. He played Dada ji in films and television. TV lovers might even remember him as Dadaji from a comedy series, Hadd Kar Di, where he starred with Swwapnil Joshi and others.
He was last seen in 2007 as Kareena Kapoor Khan‘s grandfather in Jab We Met, and the actor passed away in 2012.
