Flashback: Remembering Raaj Kumar

News X: Raaj Kumar was born as an Kulbhushan Pandit in Loralai, Balochistan, Pakistan, into a Kashmiri Pandit family. He had two sisters. In the late 1940s he moved to Mumbai, India where he became Sub-inspector of the Mumbai Police. He married Gayatri in the 1960s with whom he had three children, two sons named Puru Raajkumar (a Bollywood actor), Panini Raajkumar and a daughter named Vastavikta Raajkumar, who made her screen debut in 2006 film Eight: The Power of
Shani.Raaj Kumar started his career as an Inspector at Mahim police station, Mumbai. It is said that he never saluted his senior officers. Later he turned to movies.Raaj Kumar was noticed in his earlier films like Rangeeli, Aabshar, Ghamand, and Lakhon Mein Ek, but it was as Prince Naushazad in Sohrab Modi's Naushervan-e-Adil that he became famous. In his brief role as the husband of Nargis in Mother India, he achieved prominence. He followed this with the unglamorous role of a mill worker in Paigham. He was cast with Sunil Dutt, Shashi Kapoor and Balraj Sahni in B.R. Chopra's Waqt. In Sridhar's Dil Ek Mandir, Raaj Kumar essayed the role of a cancer patient.He also won the Filmfare Award in Best supporting actor category for movies Dil Ek Mandir and Waqt.
From his screen debut in Rangeeli to God & Gun, his played memorable characters in 60-odd films.