RIP: Feroz Khan, Bollywood Actor
By Kamla Bhatt • Apr 26th, 2009Category: Bangalore, Bollywood, India, People
Bollywood actor Feroz Khan (70) passed away earlier today according to The Hindustan Times. He was suffering from cancer. He is survived by his son Bollywood actor Fardeen and daughter Laila.
Khan was the oldest of the original “Khan brothers.” His younger brother are Sanjay (his daughter Suzanne is married to Bollywood Hrithik Roshan), Akbar and Sameer Khan.
Born and brought up in Bangalore Feroz was born to a Pathan father and an Iranian mother and maintained close ties with the city, which is where he had a sprawling farmhouse. Apparently once he was discharged from the hospital, he wanted to come to his farm house to be close to his horses.
Khan made his debut in 1960 in the Hindi film “Didi,” and continued to act in a series of movies. It was in 1975 with the release of “Dharmatma” that Khan reached new heights in his career. Dharmatma was perhaps the first movie that was shot in Afghanistan. (Subsequently a couple of other Bollywood films were shot in Afghanistan). Five years later Khan’s film Qurbani starring himself and Zeenat Aman became a box-office hit and the song “Laila, Main, Laila,” became an instant hit.
Khan went on to produce and direct more films and also starred in a couple of them including Welcome in 2007.
Sad news. By the way, without any disrespect to such actors, isn’t it interesting how many of our film “stars” look like they were recruited in Kabul, or even Tehran or further northwest. It’s as if the ghosts of the “Arya”, the Turkoman and the British never left us. Meanwhile, the extras look like run-of-the mill subcontinentals, that is, like most of us. It doesn’t seem to matter much, for the heroines at least, whether they are originally from Mangalore or Lahore, a Brahmin or a Muslim. The same “Mediterranean Caucasoid” or Kurdo-Iranian-Tajik features seem to be a requisite. You might see the same phenomenon in Mexican telenovellas, where the females, in particular, and, also as in Bollywood films, the male leads to a lesser extent, seem to have come straight from Barcelona or even Sweden. Indeed, even the hired domestic help must have Iberian features. I wonder what this says about the state of mind that prevails in many quarters in Mexico and India, so long after they won independence from Caucasoid invaders.
You make a very interesting point about actors in Bollywood and Spanish Telenovellas Arjun.
With reference to Bollywood: Besides Feroz Khan…there is Dilip Kumar, Madhubala, and I believe Rahman (need to check on this one), who came from the NorthWest frontier era before 1947. Of course, there were a whole bunch of actors who came from undivided Punjan and Sindh area like Prithvi Raj Kapoor and others.
Dunno if the selection of actors has got to do with the Caucasoid features or whether there is something else at work here.
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.
Kamla
Wow……what a man and an actor! We his fans will always remember him for the way he portrayed the best values of human society and the respect for the downtrodden he portrayed in his films! His performance in “Qurbani” was superlative. We Indians will surely miss him as will his fans in the rest of the world. We would follow him if we could if only to see more of him! He is now part of that great screen in the universe….for eternity!May his soul rest in peace! India is poorer in his passing away from the scene here!