Paidi Jairaj (born 28 September 1909 – 11 August 2000) was an Indian actor, director and producer known for his works majorly in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

; few

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

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films, and

Telugu theatre Telugu theatre is Indian theatre in the Telugu language, based in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Gurajada Apparao wrote the play, ''Kanyasulkam'' in 1892, which is often considered the greatest play in the Telugu language.20th Cent ...

.Luminaries of 20th Century, Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University, Hyderabad, 2005 During the talkie period, from 1931 onwards, he started with ''Shikari'' in Urdu and English languages. Subsequently, he became one of the leading actors for about two decades, along with

V. Shantaram Shantaram Rajaram Vankudre (18 November 1901 – 30 October 1990), referred to as V. Shantaram or Shantaram Bapu, was an Indian filmmaker, film producer, and actor known for his work in Hindi and Marathi films. He is most known for films such ...

, Ashok Kumar,

Prithviraj Kapoor Prithviraj Kapoor (born Prithvinath Kapoor; 3 November 1906 – 29 May 1972) was an Indian actor who is also considered to be one of the founding figures of Hindi cinema. He was associated with IPTA as one of its founding members and establish ...

, Motilal etc. He starred in about 170 feature films in a variety of roles. He directed a few films such as ''

Mohar The Mohur is a gold coin that was formerly minted by several governments, including British India and some of the princely states which existed alongside it, the Mughal Empire, Kingdom of Nepal, and Persia (chiefly Afghanistan). It was usually ...

'', ''Mala'' (1943), ''Pratima'', ''Rajghar'' and ''Saagar'' (1951), which he produced. In 1980, he was awarded with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest award for films in India, for his contributions to Indian cinema.

Early life

Jairaj was born in Sircilla of

Hyderabad State Hyderabad State () was a princely state located in the south-central Deccan region of India with its capital at the city of Hyderabad. It is now divided into the present-day state of Telangana, the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka, and t ...

(present-day

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India b ...

) on 28 September 1909. He had two brothers - Paidi Sundararaja, Paidi Deendayal (Artist) and Paidi Jairaj was the youngest.

Career

Jairaj developed an interest in theatre and films during his graduate studies at Nizam College, and left for

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in 1929. He made his acting debut in 1929 with the silent film ''Star Kling Youth'', and subsequently he acted in about eleven silent films including ''Triangle of Love'', ''Mathru Bhoomi'', ''All for Lover'', ''Mahasagar Mothi'', ''Flight into Death'', ''My Hero'' etc. He played the characters of Amar Singh Rathore

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Prithviraj Chauhan

959 Year 959 ( CMLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * April - May – The Byzantines refuse to pay the yearly tribute. A Hungaria ...

and Maharana Pratap 960among notable films. He also essayed the roles of Shah Jahan

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Tipu Sultan

and Haider Ali

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His other portrayals have been in films such as ''Sassi Punnu''

''Hatimtai''

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''Chandrashekar Azad''

963 Year 963 (Roman numerals, CMLXIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * March 15 – Emperor Romanos II dies at age 25, probably o ...

and ''Durga Das''

964 Year 964 ( CMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine War: Emperor Nikephoros II continues the reconquest of south-eastern Anatoli ...

among others. Jairaj did six films with Suraiya in the 1940s and 1950s, five of them, viz. ''Humaari Baat'' (1943), ''Singaar'' (1949), ''Amar Kahani'' (1949), ''Rajput'' (1951) and ''Resham'' (1952) as her hero, and one of them, ''Lal Kunwar'' (1952), as second lead. In 1952, he produced and directed his own film ''Sagar'', which was not well received by the audiences, but he was still committed to cinema.

Personal life

He married a

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...

woman, Savitri, from Delhi. It was an arranged marriage. Prithviraj Kapoor's father had chosen the bride for him. He had two sons and three daughters. His wife died a year before him of cancer. His daughter Geeta Gupta looked after him in his last years. Rajan Shahi, TV producer-director, is his daughter's son (maternal grandson), the sole person of Jairaj's extended family in Bollywood. Jairaj died in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

on 11 August 2000.

Popular culture

A one-hour documentary, Life journey of Jairaj, was made by the

Government of Telangana The Government of Telangana also known as Telangana Government, is the governing authority of the state of Telangana in India. It consists of an executive, a judiciary and a legislative. The state government is headed by the Governor of Telan ...

in 2018 to celebrate his life.

Awards

;

National Film Awards The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorat ...

* Dadasaheb Phalke Award - 1980

Filmography

Actor

Director

References

External links

*
''Talkie Star from the Silent Era''
by B. Sumangal) {{DEFAULTSORT:Jairaj, Paidi Telugu people Male actors in Hindi cinema Hindi-language film directors 1909 births 2000 deaths Dadasaheb Phalke Award recipients 20th-century Indian film directors Indian male film actors 20th-century Indian male actors Indian male stage actors Male actors in Telugu cinema Male actors in Gujarati-language films Male actors in Marathi cinema Male actors from Telangana Film directors from Telangana