Jeevan View Biography 63 Views

What if you were told that the actor who played Narad Muni in 49 films ( almost 60 with stage performances added) had run away from his home as a young boy and landed in Mumbai with only ₹ 26/ in his pocket? And the boy had no reasons to be in such a financially poor state. His grandfather was the Governor of the Gilgit Agency in Kashmir and hence the family was considered nobility.

Actor Jeevan, born 1915 into a large aristocratic Kashmiri Pandit family decided to sacrifice the comfort of affluent living with the single objective of becoming an actor. His family background naturally was not supportive of his passion but Jeevan was willing to take his chances. In Mumbai he actually got a job in a studio run by Mohan Sinha (grandfather of Vidya Sinha) to stick silver paper on light reflectors. His determination carried him through and even while he was working as a part of the technical crew, commonly referred to as Reflector Boy, he landed up with the lead role in a Mohan Sinha film, Fashionable India.

Other than playing Narad, he played notable roles, many as villains, in films of Dev Anand and later, Mammohan Desai cast him for Amar Akbar Anthony and Dharam Veer. Between 60’s to mid 80’s, Jeevan had a role to play in many of the successful films of this era.

He passed away on June 10, 1987, age 71.