Let us reminiscence his early days and touch upon his journey as a dialogue writer, comedian and his association with his co-actors.
Kader Khan was born in Afghanistan. He was a civil Engineer and took up teaching as a profession. He taught civil engineering at Mumbai in a college based at Byculla. Acting was his hobby and once in the annual day function of his college, his play Taash ke patte was noticed by the comedian Agha saab who told the great Dilip Kumar about it. Dilip Kumar called up Kader Khan and introduced himself as Yusuf Khan. When Kader khan asked who Yusuf Khan was, the reply was “Log usse Dilip Kumar ke naam se jaante hain”. Kader Khan says that the phone fell from his hand. Dilip Kumar asked him to take up acting and screenplay/dialogue writing as a full time profession. What a discovery indeed!
An all-rounder is one who fits into various roles at ease and is equally adept at all. Kader Khan is one such all-rounder who performed roles of comedian, dialogue writer, supporting actor or villain with ease. Today, on his birthday on October 22, let us reminiscence his early days and touch upon his journey as a dialogue writer , comedian and his association with Amitabh Bachchan and Shakti KapoorScriptwriter/Dialogue writer
Kader Khan wrote dialogues for around 250 films and acted in almost all of them as well since he acted in around 300 films. He won the Filmfare best dialogue writer for Angaar as well as for Meri Awaz Suno. His career as a dialogue writer started with Javaani Diwani for which he was paid Rs 1500/-. It was certainly not a big enough amount and after his work, he continued teaching his students. However, for Khel khel mein, he was given Rs 21000/- which was a substantial increase. Manmohan Desai then broke the coveted 1 Lakh barrier by giving him Rs 1,20,000/- for the film Roti. What a rise, and deservedly so.
#Comedian: Kader Khan had a terrific comic touch. He won the Filmfare best comedian award for Baap Numbri beta dus Numbri, a rare film in which two comedians, Kader Khan, and Shakti Kapoor played the lead. Other famous films in which he got acclaim as a comedian were Coolie No.1, Dulhe Raja, Saajan Chale Sasural, Aankhen, Hum, Himmatwala, Aaj ka Daur, Sikka and Main khiladi tu anari. In all these movies he got best comedian nominations.
#Kader Khan and Amitabh Bachchan: They made a terrific pair. Prakash Mehra and Manmohan Desai were of two rival camps with Amitabh and Kader Khan being the common feature in both camps. Amitabh and Kader Khan were associated with as many as 33 films together and many of the megastar’s famous dialogues were written by Kader Khan. Sharaabi, Muqaddar ka Sikandar, Amar Akbar Anthony, Parvarish, are some of the top movies in which they have acted together. Kader Khan says he had advised Amitabh not to join politics and that may have affected their relationship.
#Kader Khan and Shakti Kapoor: The duo have worked together in 125 movies, which could be some kind of record. Some of their famous films together are Haseena maan jayegi, Deevaana Mastana, Hero No 1, Aankhen and Baap Numbri beta dus numbri.