Legandary actor director Manoj Kumar passed away on April 4, 2025 due to a prolonged illness and LEGEND is a word used very easily but here was a man who has a legitimate claim. There is not much to say about him as a director of blockbusters as that will be pretty well documented but as actor he also had a record which would put the people with tags like superstar, megastar, emperor, king, queen etc. to shame.

Manoj Kumar was an actor who started his career in the late 50's and that time there was hardly anything called PR as this started in the late 60's. Then the tags mentioned above came into play as the media also sprang its wings with many more publications. So, various journalists probably got the nudge to write certain things and it continues till date. The super and mega tags were missing even for all the legends who came before the late 60's as they did not indulge in PR. There will be exceptions but the real talents did not at that time. Actually its easier to write about people whose success is less documented as the ones with the tags who are no doubt huge also but the level of success tends to get overrated due the actors pushing a lot themselves.

The track record of Manoj Kumar as an actor may well be second to none or at least up there with Dilip Kumar in terms of HIT ratio and success ratio if we count post stardom only. There was selective work as the filmography is only 50 films plus but this is the method of almost all the major stars today as well. However, they are unable to have this sort of track record even though it is actually easier today as an initial and seven days does the job.

In the times of Manoj Kumar, it had to be done over weeks and many of his films hit 25 weeks in ten centres or more. Obviously he was a better filmmaker than anyone today in the industry so that understanding helped pile up the HITS (many were ghost directed by him though credits had other names) and even other wise, there were generally better filmmakers around then who knew how to tell a story the Indian way.

It was on April 9, 1965 that HIMALAY KI GOD MEIN first released in Delhi/UP which made Manoj Kumar a box office star and there was no looking back after that. In the next 15-16 years, which was his peak before health took its toll, he had 25 releases and out of them only three films flopped and another four were successful while all the others were HITS or better. Out of the three films which flopped, there was the long delayed PICNIC which should have come a few years earlier and in 1976 there was another long delayed film AMAANAT which should have come in the early 70's. But such was the goodwill of Manoj Kumar that even AMAANAT somehow succeeded to the shock of its distributors.

Despite just twenty five films in these fifteen odd years there was a clash also as PEHCHAN and YAADGAAR released on the same day in 1970 and both did well. At that time, clashes were not important as a film would release in Mumbai and another film would have its premiere in Delhi/UP or East Punjab or West Bengal but here it was a genuine clash. Both these films started their journey in the same circuit as PEHCHAN released in Delhi /UP and CP Berar while YAADGAAR released in Delhi/UP and East Punjab. Business of both films was similar but PEHCHAN had less costs involved.

Below is the phenomenal box office record of Manoj Kumar between 1965 and 1981. The HIT or better films are in BOLD and the verdicts of these will be put up later this year as the site is updated. The way its going today, it may all be about nostalgia and the great records of years gone by. Nevertheless, you live in hope for things to get better and a director or two like Manoj Kumar would give confidence. This list does not include two films, MERA NAAM JOKER and SHIRDI KE SAI BABA, as they are seen as guest roles. The former failed while the latter did well.

The list is in release order.

Poonam Ki Raat (1965) - FLOP

Bedaag (1965) - AVERAGE

Anita (1967) - FLOP

Picnic (1967) - FLOP (Delayed Release)

Yaadgaar (1970) - SEMI HIT

Balidaan (1971) - SEMI HIT

Amaanat (1976) - SEMI HIT (Delayed Release)

KARNTI released 40 years ago on this date and remains one of the greatest films in Hindi cinema where the audience went mad over the film from the very first show and then the film went on to create history. KARNTI was about revolutionary farmers who take an oath to take on the British Raj. The story was told in an epic way; it was an almost perfect storytelling for the Indian audience which struck a chord and how. It was also backed up with blockbuster music and heart wrenching emotions and all this puts it among the top ten films ever of Hindi cinema. KARNTI is no doubt the biggest patriotic film ever seen in India with GADAR - EK PREM KATHA being next best.

The film released on 13th February 1981 in Mumbai, Delhi/UP, East Punjab, CP Berar, CI and Rajasthan to packed houses with a struggle to find tickets for weeks. The film then released in South a couple of weeks later while it made its entry into West Bengal and Bihar in April to an extraordinary response.

The film had a huge cast featuring Dilip Kumar, Manoj Kumar, Shashi Kapoor, Hema Malini, Shatrughan Sinha and Parveen Babi among others and was directed by Manoj Kumar who had four huge HITS to his credit. But KARNTI was set to go to another level compared to his earlier films.

At the time of release, it was the fastest earner of all time setting first run records in practically all circuits barring Mumbai and South. It was the second highest grossing film ever behind SHOLAY but that is because no film could come close to the repeat run business of SHOLAY and nor will any film be able to. KARNTI had higher business than SHOLAY if we count first run only.

If we look at it in terms of business today, the film may well be showing a number of over 600 crore nett or even 700 crore nett. It celebrated a silver jubilee in 26 centres and even in places like Mirzapur (UP) and Jungadh (Gujarat) where jubilees were very rare. There are hardly ten films in history that have celebrated jubilees in over 25 centres.

The craze of the film was such that in places like Delhi, Rajasthan, UP and Haryana, there were shops selling KARNTI T-Shirts, jackets, vests and even underwear. The year 1981 was a big one for the industry which saw some huge BLOCKBUSTERS like NASEEB, LAAWARIS, EK DUUJE KE LIYE, LOVE STORY and MERI AAWAZ SUNO, etc but KRANTI stood apart and was at the top of the pile.

The film in Delhi/UP was so huge that it released with 24 prints and within a few weeks you would except some of these prints going down into smaller centres for monetization. But even after ten weeks of release, it had only hit Delhi city and 19 towns and cities of UP and still over 100 towns and cities were yet to go. The collections in all major centres of UP were just refusing to drop week after week. The collections after ten weeks in places like Agra, Gorakhpur and Varanasi were still competing with new releases.

The first ten week figures in Delhi/UP are as follows. 
Week One - 15,01,254
Week Two - 14,93,362
Week Three - 14,35,710
Week Four - 14,08,561
Week Five - 12,14,008
Week Six - 12,01,502
Week Seven - 11,05,223
Week Eight - 11,39,816
Week Nine - 10,78,713
Week Ten - 10,10,027
TOTAL - 1,25,88,176 (10 weeks)

KARNTI grossed 1.25 crore nett in Delhi/UP in ten weeks and then went on to do over 3 crore nett in its full run. Before HUM AAPKE HAI KOUN came in 1994, there were only three films in history to cross 3 crore nett in Delhi/UP and they were SHOLAY (1975), KRANTI (1981) and MARD (1985).

Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 23, 2020)

August 15, 1947, is a red-letter day for us as it marks the birth of independent India. Almost a decade earlier, on July 24, 1937, another Bharat was born, in Abbottabad, a small town in the North-Western Frontier Province, then, a part of this country, now in neighbouring Pakistan. The boy who entered the world with a lusty cry was christened Harikrishna Goswami by his aunt, the name chosen because it carried a little of both parents, Harbans Lal and Krishna Kumari. Today, however, it’s Manoj Kumar rather than Harikrishna Goswami that rings a bell. In fact, thanks to his blockbuster patriotic dramas, the actor-writer-filmmaker has come to be known as Mr Bharat.

Prem Chopra, who worked with him in 13 films, including Shaheed, Upkar, Purab Aur Pachhim and Kranti, remembers Manoj Kumar saab as an all-rounder, who not only played the hero to perfection but also wrote, produced and directed his own films. “He could even operate the camera and edit, with the result that his films have become textbooks for aspiring actors and filmmakers for the innovations he introduced, like one-scene-one-shot at a time when there were no visual effects, and technical gimmickry was limited to trolley and zoom shots. Over the years, he’s become an institution in himself,” he asserts.

While Manoj Kumar saab officially made his debut as a director with Upkar, Prem Chopra saab reveals that even though S Ram Sharma is credited as the director of Shaheed, it was their Bhagat Singh who was taking all the calls, including insisting that none of the ‘prisoners’ could shave. “So, all through the making of the film, 75 per cent of which was filmed at the Ludhiana Central Jail, I sported a beard,” narrates the actor, who played Sukhdev in the desh bhakti film and admits he actually felt like one of the nationalists when marching towards the gallows.

The film premiered in 1965 and Prem Chopra saab remembers that the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, who was the special guest, had warned that he wouldn’t stay longer than 10 minutes. “But he was so mesmerised and moved, he sat right through the film, without even an interval break. Upkar was made on his slogan ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan,’” recounts the actor who played Manoj Kumar saab’s younger brother, Puran, a role with grey shades, which, after the success of the film, brought along a flood of offers. As a result, he could finally give up his job in the circulation department of The Times Of India and become a full-time actor. More than half a century later, he’s still going strong.

Shatrughan Sinha, who played a fiery freedom fighter, Kareem Khan, in another of Manoj Kumar saab’s patriotic drama, Kranti, agrees with Prem Chopra saab that he is a “genius” and not just as an actor, producer, writer and director, he also has a terrific ear for music. “He is a complete artiste, and as a person, always serene. I have never heard him raise his voice at anyone on the set, not even on me even though I was notorious for coming late,” Shatru ji reminisces with a laugh.

Irrespective of when he arrived, Manoj saab would smile amicably at his Bihari Babu and tell him to let him know when he was ready to shoot before going back to his corner to work on his lines and those of others too. Instantly, you are reminded of Shatru ji’s evergreen dialogue from the film, “Apni laashon se hum tarikh ko aabad rakhen, woh ladaai ho ki angrez jise yaad rakhe” that still resonates.

So does Prem Chopra saab’s equally popular line, “Shambhu ka dimaag do dhaari talwar hai.” The actor remembers that back then filmmaking was a group activity and the whole team would sit together to discuss and design. “A character like Shambhu Singh was conceived by Manoj saab, but he gave me complete creative liberty to flesh him out,” he recounts.

Shatru ji remembers the actor-filmmaker, who turns 83 on Friday, approaching him for the role of Kareem Khan and telling him that it wasn’t much in terms of footage, but promising that it would make an impact. And sure enough, he reveals, when late producer-director Manmohan Desai saw Kranti, he called Shatru ji to tell him that he was the best. “It taught me a lesson I will remember all my life, that it’s not the length of the role, but the strength of the role that matters,” he signs off with his signature flourish.


Shaheed team with the then PM; Prem Chopra & Manoj Kumar in Upkar; Shatrughan Sinha in Kranti

Dilip Kumar and Shammi Kapoor in Vidhaata

Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 13, 2019)

Dilip Kumar is 97 and I’m reminded of a time when, as a cub reporter, I had watched him from afar, as he lounged in the lawn of his bungalow, recounting his journey to my editor. Then, suave in a suit and a tie, he posed with Filmfare’s Black Lady that he’d bagged for lifetime achievement. My biggest regret is that I didn’t get to interview him. Perhaps that’s why, I keep talking to those who knew the man who made me laugh in my growing up years as he strutted around on my black-and-white TV screen crooning, “Sala Main To Sahab Ban Gaya” in Sagina and weatched my mother swoon as he went careening in a tonga to the tune of “Maang Ke Saath Tumhara”. By the time I met him, he was no longer a dashing Casanova with an errant lock kissing his forehead. But he was still just as charming and made me wonder even more about the man behind the matinee idol.

So, I quizzed a filmmaker who decided to become an actor after watching Dilip saab’s Shaheed and Jugnu, then, went on to co-star with him in Aadmi. While it was being filmed, Manoj Kumar would often borrow from his friend’s wardrobe. In the course of a conversation, he recalled how, whenever Dilip Kumar spotted him in one of his costumes, he would smile and say graciously, “Achche lag rahe ho.”

Thirteen years after the 1968 film about obsessive love, Manoj saab convinced Dilip saab to end a five-year sabbatical to spearhead his Kranti (right). The historical drama was his most ambitious production, with Manoj saab as its writer, director and actor too. For the first four days at RK Studio, he just sat patiently and watched Dilip saab get into character. Then, he was living Sanga, reeling off one perfect take after another. Having known him closely, Manoj saab understood that his role model was a perfectionist who could not be hurried. But once Dilip saab was ready, the assistants never had to remind the thespian to report for work. He’d be on the sets by 11.15 am at the latest, and leave only after taking permission from his producer-director.

Subhash Ghai who directed Dilip saab in three films—Vidhaata, Karma and Saudagar—informs that the two most influential persons in his life till date were both born on same day, December 11. “One is Osho who taught me how to understand the philosophy of life and the psychology of people and stay happy. The other is the emperor of acting, Dilip Kumar, who taught me how to understand the philosophy of my film’s story and the psychology of my characters,” Subhash ji points out.

The filmmaker goes on to add that during Vidhaata he had no idea that Dilip saab and Shammi Kapoor had a spat decades ago and set up his first scene with the two actors in Agra. “Shammi ji was not happy with the scene shot because he had got intimidated by Dilip saab and expressed his resentment to me in his room. He was shocked when I told him that after the shoot, Dilip saab had told me, ‘Subhash, Shammi’s character seems to be a very interesting part of the film and he is a good actor as well. Please see that you increase his role even at my cost. You will be happy,” reminisces Subhash ji, saying that Shammi ji went on to bag the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the film.

Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 8, 2018)

By the eighties, with half-a-dozen blockbusters to his credit, actor-filmmaker Manoj Kumar was better known as Mr Bharat, a name he owes to movie moghul Sashadhar Mukherjee who addressed him by it three days after the release of Shaheed. I’ve grown up listening to Shaheed’s patriotic track “Mera Rang De Basanti Chola”, Upkar’s “Mere Desh Ki Dharti” and Purab Aur Paschim’s “Hai Preet Jahan Ki Reet Sada” playing unfailingly every year on Independence Day and Republic Day. However, decades later the actor-filmmaker admitted that when he embarked on his most ambitious film, Kranti, set between 1825 and 1875, and focusing on a Ramgarh-born revolution against British tyranny, he wasn’t sure if there would be many takers for a desh bhakti drama, specially amongst youngsters, three decades after India had won its Independence. Yet, despite his apprehensions, the need to spearhead a kranti in modern times prompted him to put a call through to Dilip Kumar despite knowing that the thespian had not made a movie since Bairaag in 1976.

The Dilip Kumar and Noor Jehan-starrer Jugnu, which opened in 1947, was the first film Manoj Kumar saw as a nine-year-old schoolboy, followed by Ramesh Saigal’s patriotic drama, Shaheed, that released the following year. His screen idol went on to become his co-star in Aadmi, and the actor-filmmaker offered Dilip Kumar the lead role of Sanga aka Kranti in his upcoming film, asking lightly, “Raja sahab, ek bahut bogus kahaani hai aur ek bahut bogus role hai. I know only you can do justice to this role. Will you do it?” Intrigued, Dilip Kumar invited him home for a narration. Manoj Kumar waited till his script was complete, before keeping the appointment and then almost got turned away.

Dilip Kumar’s younger brother was in hospital and the actor wasn’t in the mood for a three-hour narration. Manoj Kumar offered to sketch out his story in two minutes and at the end of 120 seconds, the actor noted, “Hmmm, it’s a very fertile land” and pleased that he’d made an impression, the younger actor-filmmaker replied with a smile, “Then let’s plough it together. Fasal achchi hogi.”

Dilip Kumar came out of a five-year sabbatical to find himself confronting Manoj Kumar, who played his son in the film, on a set designed as a cave. “When he was ready I looked through the camera to gauge how he would capture the shot on celluloid and from what I saw, I knew that I was in the hands of an excellent director,” the thespian had reminisced.

Kranti opened on February 6, 1981. It was one of the costliest films of its time with lavish set-pieces, an A-list star cast which included, besides Dilip Kumar and Manoj Kumar, Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Hema Malini, Parveen Babi, Sarika, Nirupa Roy, Prem Nath, Prem Chopra, Madan Puri, P Jairaj, Pradeep Kumar and Paintal, high-octane dialogue that had theatres across the country resounding with claps and seeties, blood-splattered action and a hit Laxmikanth-Pyarelal score that included “Chana Jor Garam”, a surprise addition to the desh bhakti playlist.

“Apni Dharti, Apna Hai Gagan, Yeh Mera Hai Mera Hai Vatan, Iss Par Jo Aankh Uthayega, Zinda Dafnaya Jayega,, Mera Chana Hai Apni Marzi Ka. Marzi Ya,Marzi Ka Bhai, Marzi Ka, Yeh Dusman Hai Khudgarzi Ka, Khudgarzi Ka…” Ringing with jingoism, this Kishore Kumar, Mohd. Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar and Nitin Mukesh collaboration became another national favourite with the father-son duo of Dilip Kumar and Manoj Kumar standing with nooses around their necks, staring death in the eye.

“I’d written the song to lighten the grim mood of the film. I ended up giving the ‘chana’ (Indian gram) a patriotic touch with these lines,” Manoj Kumar marvelled years later.