THIS actor charged more money than others, remained jobless for months, sold wife’s jewellery to pay…

Pran said, ‘When riots started in Lahore in 1947, I sent my wife to Indore with our one-year-old child. My son’s first birthday was on 11 August 1947 and my wife told me to come to Indore or else she would not celebrate the birthday. I reached Indore on 10 August and an announcement was made on All India Radio that a communal massacre had started in Lahore. I could not go back so we came to Bombay. On the eve of independence, I reached Bombay with my family on 14 August 1947.’ His first film in Mumbai was Ziddi which was released in 1948 and he was seen in films like Putli, Grihasti, Sheesh Mahal. Pran said, ‘most of my films were becoming hits, so my demand kept increasing’.