Feroz Khan

BIOGRAPHY :

Feroz Khan , born September 25, 1939, sometimes spelled as Firoz Khan or Feroze Khan is one of Bollywood's famous actors, film editor, producer and director. He is the father of the young and popular actor Fardeen Khan.

Feroz Khan was born in Bangalore, India to an Afghan father, Sadiq Khan (Naib Khel) and an Iranian mother, Fatima. He belongs to the Pashtun ethnic group. He has three brothers named Sanjay Khan actor, Sameer Khan actor and film maker Akbar Khan. After his schooling from Bangalore, he arrived in Bombay where he made his debut as second lead in "Didi" (1960).

For the next five years he was forced to play the second lead in most of the movies. Through the early 1960s he made low-budget thrillers opposite starlets. He also appeared in an English-language film "Tarzan Goes to India" in 1962 opposite Simi Garewal.

His first big hit was in 1965 with the release of "Oonche Log". It was his first major hit, but failed to attain the success he had hoped. Again, in the same year, he played a sacrificing lover in the mushy musical "Arzoo". With this, Khan earned his entry into A-list second leads. With the film "Aadmi Aur Insaan" (1969), Khan won his first Filmfare award for Best Actor in Supporting Role. In 1971 he appeared alongside his real-life brother Sanjay Khan in the hit film "Mela".

But leading roles were still beyond the actor's reach. He turned producer and director so as to improve his career opportunities as a leading man. He produced, directed and starred in the 1975 film "Dharmatma" which was the first Indian film to shoot in Afghanistan and was also his first blockbuster hit as producer, director and star. This was an Indian inspiration from the Hollywood film "The Godfather". In 1976 he was one of the many actors to appear in the cult classic horror film "Nagin" which also had his brother Sanjay in one of the leading roles.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, he was the top Bollywood star in films and often directed and starred in many of his films. The movie "Qurbani" (1980) was the biggest hit of his career and also launched the singing career of Nazia Hassan. In 1988 he directed and starred in "Dayavan" which was a remake of a South Indian film "Nayagan" which starred Kamal Hassan.

After he directed and starred in "Yalgaar" (1992), he took a long break from acting for 11 years and took to producing, directing and even editing a few films. He launched his son Fardeen Khan's career with the 1998 film "Prem Aggan" which was however a box office failure. He made a comeback to acting with his most recently produced and directed film "Janasheen" (2003) which also starred his son Fardeen and had Feroz make his first film appearance in 11 years. He starred with his son again in "Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena" (2005) which was not however directed by him.

In 1965, he married Sundari. They had two children together, Laila and Fardeen Khan (b. 1974). In 1985, after 20 years of marriage, he divorced his wife. His son recently married Natasha Madhwani, the daughter of his occasional on-screen lover Mumtaz. His daughter Laila is married to Indian tennis player Rohit Rajpal.

He is also alleged to be close to the Mumbai Underworld as he was known to Dawood Ibrahim, an infamous underworld don and the most wanted criminal of India and also on the CIA list.

His name was mentioned recently during the Bombay Blast Conspiracy Trials , where a famous actor, Sanjay Dutt, son of Congress MP, Sunil Dutt, was imprisoned for six years in an illegal arms case. In the early 90s, Feroz Khan had introduced Sanjay Dutt to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in Dubai which had other equally notorious criminals like Chhota Rajan, Iqbal Mirchi and Sharad Shetty.

Feroze Khan also faced a lot of difficulties on family front when his son, Fardeen Khan was arrested for carrying and abusing drugs. His son has been on rehabilitation in the past several times.

ACTED IN THE MOVIES OF SUPER STAR RAJESH KHANNA :

1) Aurat - 1967
2) Safar - 1970
3) Oonche Log - 1985