Sudhir Was A First Super Hit Hero Of Pakistani Films

Sudhir was a popular actor in both Urdu and Punjabi films. He has a long film career of 40 years. Her first released film Farz (1947) was a Lahore-based pre-partition Hindi, Urdu film and her first heroine was Ragini.

In Pakistan, he was the protagonist of the third film, Hitchcock, released in 1949. He rose to fame with Pakistan's first classic melodic Urdu film Dupatta (1952) and in 1956 with the film Baagi as an action hero. His last Pashto film was Pat Khmer in 1989.

Sudhir was a highly respected film personality. He was known as Lala Sudhir. Lala means uncle in Pashto and elder brother in Punjabi. He was of Pashtun origin but spent his entire life in Lahore. He had only one Pashto film in his career and it was actually a Punjabi film "Putar Da Pyar" (1972) which was released in Pashto version.

Sudhir's real name was Shah Zaman Khan Afridi. He was born on 25 January 1921 and died on 19 January 1997 in Lahore. Sudhir has been married three times, first to his family, second to actress Shammi and third to actress Zeba. Sudhir's son was seen with his first wife in Shah Zaman (film title) in the film Dushman Ki Talash (1978).

The records of some of Sudhir's amazing films are as follows:

Sudhir was the most successful box office hero in the first two decades of Pakistani film history.

2: Sudhir's film Sassi (1954) was for the first time a super hit Urdu film of the Golden Jubilee (50 Weeks).

3: Sudhir became Pakistan's first action hero from the film Baagi (1956). The film was the first ever Pakistani film to be released in China.

4: Sudhir's Punjabi film Dulla Bhatti (1956) was the first blockbuster film in Pakistan. The film was directed by Agha G.A. Gul earned so much money that he was able to build Pakistan's state-of-the-art film studio, Avenue Studio, Multan Road, Lahore.

5: Sudhir's Punjabi film Yake Wali (1957) was Pakistan's first Golden Jubilee Punjabi film and second blockbuster film. Bari Studio, Pakistan's largest film studio at Multan Road, Lahore, was built with the benefit of this film. The cost of the film was around Rs. 1 lakh (100,000) but the profit was more than Rs. 45 lakh (Rs. Still an unbroken film business record in Pakistan.

6: Sudhir was the main protagonist in the classic Punjabi film Kartar Singh (1959) which was screened in Punjab cinemas for more than three years.

7: Sudhir had a real fight with a lion in his 1960 film Sahil.

8: Sudhir's films Ajab Khan (1961) and Farangi (1964) were two of the best and most successful films on the freedom struggle against the British Empire.

Sudhir was in the title role in Pakistan's first Platinum Jubilee (75 Weeks) film Jidar (1965). The film celebrated its lone golden jubilee at its main cinema Rivoli, Lahore.

10: Sudhir was an impressive film hero and heroes of other big films like Darpan, Akmal, Ejaz, Habib, Mohammad Ali, Waheed Murad, Shahid, Yusuf Khan and Sultan Rahi appeared in his accompanying roles.

11: Sudhir had an excellent record with Sabiha Khanum. They were seen as ordinary heroes and heroines, spouses, daughters, fathers, mothers, sons, brothers and sisters and adversaries.

12: Sudhir was a versatile hero, despite being an action hero. He was Hatim Tai in Hatim (1956), Prince Saleem in the classic film Anar Kali (1958), Mirza Jatt in Mirza Sahit (1956), Mirza Ghalib in the film Ghalib (1961).

13: Sudhir was a side hero with his son in his produced film Dushman Ki Talash (1978).

Husanpreet Singh