Kader Khan was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, on 22 October 1937 into a Sunni Muslim family.[1][3] His father was Abdul Rahman Khan from Kandahar, Afghanistan while his mother was Iqbal Begum from Pishin in the Baluchistan Province of British India (now in Balochistan, Pakistan).[3][4] Khan had three brothers, Shams ur Rehman, Fazal Rehman and Habib ur Rehman. He is an ethnic Pashtun of the Kakar tribe.[3] Khan was raised in the Kamathipura neighbourhood of Mumbai after his family moved there from Kabul.[5] He enrolled in a local municipal school and later in the Ismail Yusuf College[2] after which he graduated in Engineering specialising in Civil engineering. Between 1970 and 1975, he taught at M. H. Saboo Siddik College of Engineering in Byculla as a professor of civil engineering.[2][5]
While performing in a play named Taash Ke Patey, he was noted by comedian Agha who then suggested actor Dilip Kumar to see the play. Dilip Kumar was impressed and signed him up for his next films, Sagina and Bairaag. During an interview with Rediff, Khan recalled this as the incident that started his film career.[2] He used to write plays for theatres and was subsequently offered to write the script of Jawani Diwani, which started his career as a scriptwriter.[2][5]
His career as a Hindi film writer began when Narinder Bedi saw the theatre play Khan had written and asked him to co-write the script for Jawani Diwani with Inder Raj Anand, for which Khan received 1500 rupees.[6]
Career
Actor
Khan acted in over 300[1] films in Hindi and Urdu and wrote dialogue for over 250 Indian films, from the 1970s up to the turn of the 21st century.[7] At the insistence of Rajesh Khanna,[8]Manmohan Desai paid him the high amount of one lakh twenty-one thousand (121,000) for writing dialogue for the film Roti (1974), which was produced by Khanna himself.[2]
He starred in his comedy television series titled Hasna Mat (literally: Don't laugh), which aired on Star Plus in 2001. He made a comeback on Indian television with a comedy series Hi! Padosi... Kaun Hai Doshi? on Sahara One.[12]
Khan was in demand by South Indian film production houses such as Padmalaya. Major filmmakers of southern cinema such as Narayana Rao Dasari, K. Bapayya, K. Raghavendra Rao, T. Rama Rao, Dasari Narayan Rao, D. Rama Naidu consulted Khan for doing the script and dialogue of the Hindi remakes of their southern language films.[5] Some of these films included Himmatwala (1983), Justice Chaudhury (1983), Haisiyat (1984) and Singhasan (1986). As reported in The Hindu, "He didn't just translate the original films into Hindi but transposed them into a new North setting, culture, context and language."[5]
Khan lived in Mumbai, until moving to Toronto for health reasons.[14] He had three sons: Sarfaraz Khan, Shahnawaz Khan, and a third son Quddus who lived in Canada, who died in 2021.[2][15][16] His son Sarfaraz Khan has also acted in several films. It was reported that Khan took the citizenship of Canada.[17] In 2014, Khan visited Mecca to perform Hajj.[18]
Death
Khan had supranuclear palsy, a degenerative disease.[14][19] He was hospitalised on 28 December 2018 complaining of "breathlessness" in Canada, where he stayed with his son and daughter-in-law while seeking treatment.[19] On 31 December 2018 (EST), Khan's son, Sarfaraz Khan, confirmed that Khan had died.[20][21][22] His funeral ceremony was held at ISNA mosque in Mississauga,[23] and he was buried in Brampton's Meadowvale Cemetery.[24]
Awards and nominations
2013: Sahitya Shiromani Award for his work and contributions to the Hindi Film industry and Cinema.[25]
Khan was recognised twice by the AFMI (American Federation of Muslims from India) for his achievements and service to the Muslim community in India.[26][27]
On 26 January 2019 Government of India announced to posthumously award Kader Khan Padma Shri.[28]