From fighting alongside Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose against the Britishers to making the first ever film in Bhojpuri cinema, Nazir Hussain has had one of the most interesting and charismatic lives in the history of Indian cinema.
Born on May 15, 1922, in Lucknow in a railway guard's family, Nazir Hussain worked as a fireman in the Indian Railways for a few months before joining the British army in the World War II. He became a prisoner of war in Malaysia and Singapore, where he was posted. After getting freed, he joined Subhash Chandra Bose's Indian National Army in his mission to wipe out the Britishers from India.
When Japan fell to the British, Hussain was transported back to India and found himself jobless. Soon, he started performing plays in Calcutta (now Kolkata), where he met the legendary Indian filmmaker Bimal Roy. Roy wanted to make a film based on the life of an INA soldier so he found Hussain in his search. Impressed by hi personaity, the director even asked him to act in the film and thus, Hussain made his debut in the 1950 film Pehla Aadmi, for which he wrote the story and dialogues also.
Pehla Aadmi was a wide success, and Hussain collaborated with Roy in his other successful films such as Parineeti, Do Bigha Zameen, and Devdas. The actor impressed the audience and the critics with his brilliant performances and became one of the most famous character actors in Hindi cinema of the 60s and 70s. Hussain worked in over hudnred films with superstars Guru Dutt, Dev Anand, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna, Parveen Babi, Asha Parekh, Hema Malini, and others.
Apart from his invaluable contribution to Hindi cinema, Nazir Hussain has a much bigger legacy in Bhojpuri cinema. The actor met India's first President Rajendra Prasad in the late 1950s and both of them discussed the possibility of making films in their mother toungue, the Bhojpuri language. Soon, Hussain began working on a script and made the first-ever film in Bhojpuri cinema, called Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo. Released in 1963, the movie was directed by Kundan Kumar. Apart from acting in it, Hussain owned the responsibility for the film from its inception to its release. He soon turned producer and started backing Bhojpuri films, which were not only commercial successes but were also praised for dealing with prevailing social issues. He was given the title of 'Pitamah of Bhojpuri cinema'.
By the early 1980s, the veteran actor cut down his work in films and his last on-screen appearance was in K. Asif's incomplete, long-delayed, and posthumously released Love and God in 1986. Nazir Hussain passed away in October 1987, aged 65.
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