Krishan Kumar

QAMYAB – THE FORGOTTEN GEMS OF BOLLYWOOD

Qamyab is our humble tribute to all those lesser-known actors, one hit wonders and junior artists who we see umpteen times but don’t know about; beyond their faces. These actors have been an integral part of Bollywood but didn’t get their due. This series is our sincere attempt to put a name to these faces, familiarize them to our readers and celebrate their achievements in life – however big or small. We believe that every artist contributes in his/her own way to the cinema’s success. Qamyab will explore the unknown lives of such actors and artists as we believe even these forgotten gems of Bollywood deserve their due recognition today.

The ’90s decade saw the launch of many new actors like Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan and Ajay Devgn, who went on to rule Bollywood for the next three decades. One more hero, launched with great fanfare during this time, couldn’t make it big as an actor but today, is well known as the top Bollywood producer. His name is Krishan Kumar.

Krishan Kumar Dua was born in the late ‘50s in a Punjabi family. His father Chandrabhan Kumar Dua migrated to Delhi during India’s partition of 1947 and set up a juice centre in the city’s Daryaganj area. His elder brother Gulshan Kumar started working with their father from a very young age while Krishan was still studying.

Gulshan Kumar had an entrepreneurial mind and diversified his business in to an audio cassette shop. From a humble beginning of selling cheap copies and cover version of old songs, the brand T-Series soon became a leading music label of the ’90s. The Company also produced some successful films like Lal Dupatta Malmal Ka (1989), Aashiqui (1990) and Bahaar Aane Tak (1990).

Looking at these successful ventures, Gulshan Kumar thought of launching Krishan Kumar as a hero. Not many know that it was Gulshan’s unfulfilled dream of becoming an actor himself and now, he saw the dream come true in his younger brother Krishan.

Gulshan approached his Aashiqui director Mahesh Bhatt to direct Krishan Kumar’s debut film but Bhatt Saahab refused the offer. Next, Ketan Anand was hired as director and Aaja Meri Jaan, a musical suspense thriller on the lines of Teesri Manzil (1966), became the Bollywood debut of Krishan Kumar. The film had the pretty Tanya Singh as his heroine with veterans Shammi Kapoor, Pran and Deven Verma in supporting roles.

Huge hoardings of Krishan Kumar adorned the city walls. Gulshan Kumar left no stone unturned to promote his brother as a hero. Then popular channel called ATN was almost hijacked to play the songs from Aaja Meri Jaan every five minutes. Audio cassettes were distributed free with the movie tickets at prime cinemas. Despite all this hype and hoopla, the film didn’t work with the critics and audience alike.

Not to be bogged down by the failure of Aaja Meri Jaan, Krishan Kumar was given a second chance by Gulshan in his next Kasam Teri Kasam (1993), which was a love triangle featuring two beauties Neeta Puri and Kanchan opposite Krishan in the main lead. This film also tanked at the box office.

The business savvy Gulshan Kumar now decided to take his brother’s fledgling career in his own hands. He had a music bank of Ataullah Khan’s compositions which he got singers like Sonu Nigam and Anuradha Paudwal to redub and wove a tragic love story around these songs. The film was titled Bewafa Sanam and it was written, produced and directed by Gulshan Kumar himself. Krishan Kumar was obviously the hero with a rather voluptuous Shilpa Shirodkar paired opposite him. The audio cassettes of Bewafa Sanam, released before the movie release, sold like hot cakes and significantly contributed to create a curiosity about the film.

Bewafa Sanam turned out to be the surprise hit of 1995 and it made two persons overnight stars. One was its new singer Sonu Nigam and second was actor Krishan Kumar. Naturally, Krishan was on cloud nine and a big plan was underway for another musical blockbuster but fate had something else in store for him.

On 12th August, 1997, Gulshan Kumar was shot dead in broad daylight by underworld elements. Krishan Kumar went in to a deep shock. His father figure like brother was no more. The mentor of his acting career was gone forever. Gulshan’s children were quite young at that time and it was at this crucial juncture that Krishan Kumar decided to take responsibility of his family as well as the T-Series business. Thus, he sacrificed his acting ambition.

Over the years, Krishan Kumar along with Gulshan’s son Bhushan Kumar took the T-Series brand to great heights and today, it is the top most music company and also a leading production house in India. The success he got as a producer, was infinitely more than as an actor.

In his personal life, Krishan Kumar married his Aaja Meri Jaan co-actor Tanya Singh and both have a daughter named Tishaa. In the new millennium, Krishan acted in just one movie titled Papa The Great which released in 2000 and has bid goodbye to acting after that. Nowadays, he is launching new faces in Bollywood just like his brother Gulshan Kumar had launched him once.