In the mid-1970s, multistarrer was the buzzword in popular Hindi cinema. Producer-director Rajkumar Kohli, who became synonymous with the catchphrase delivering blockbusters like Nagin (1976) and Jaani Dushman (1979), passed away at his Mumbai residence following a heart attack on Friday. He was 93.

“Kohli-ji passed away peacefully at around 8 am today. He had gone to take a shower in the morning and when he didn’t step out for a while, his son Armaan broke open the door and found him on the floor. A doctor came home and declared him dead,” family friend Vijay Grover told PTI.

In the Kohli universe, major stars often had minor parts. Nagin, a shape-shifting snake’s tale of revenge, was a mega-ensemble of seven heroes and five heroines. Unlike most thrillers of the time, the superhit had a woman protagonist. Jaani Dushman, another neatly-crafted supernatural yarn, hosted a galaxy of stars including Sanjeev Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Jeetendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Neetu Singh, Rekha and Reena Roy. Dutt and Roy were regulars in Kohli’s movies.

In the 1970s, several Hindi cinema stars worked in triple shifts having signed 30 films or more. Getting dates was as difficult as procuring sugar in ration shops. But Kohli managed them with elan. Jaani Dushman, briefly banned for encouraging irrationality and later cleared by the court, was among the major hits of 1979 alongside Noorie, Dada and Suhaag, as Trade Guide records show. His banner, Shankar Movies, became a reliable name for distributors.

The Lahore-born producer-director continued in the same vein in the 1980s. For Badle Ki Aag (1982) and Raaj Tilak (1984), too, he roped in stars by the dozen. Both films were modestly successful. However, Dharmendra’s comedy, Naukar Biwi Ka (1983)— with a smaller cast—was a bigger winner. As the tenor of action films changed in the mid-’80s, so did Kohli. Insaniyat Ke Dushman (1987) landed in serious censor trouble for depicting hyper violence. The film stalled for five months with the Censors and was certified after several cuts.

Kohli started as a producer in Punjabi films. Main Jatti Punjab Di (1964) had Premnath and Nishi, who later became his wife, in lead roles. Nishi was again the heroine in Lootera (1965), a small-budget adventure yarn in Hindi, with Dara Singh as the crowd-pleasing lead. In the separated-at-birth tale, Gora Aur Kala (1972), two brothers (Rajendra Kumar in a double role) are physically separate yet conjoined: when one gets hit, the other feels the pain. The storyline borrowed elements from Alexander Dumas’ 19th century novel, The Corsican Brothers. With Nagin and Jaani Dushman, Kohli found limelight and box-office gold.