Dara Singh

Some Lesser Known Facts About Dara Singh

• Did Dara Singh drink alcohol?: No ^[2]Times of India

• Dara Singh was born in a middle-class family in Ratangarh Village, Gurdaspur.

• He grew up in the Dharmu Chak village.

• Singh gave up his studies at an early age and started carrying out farming activities for his family.

• At the age of 9, he was married to Bachno Kaur and their first child, Parduman Randhawa was born in 1945. However, the couple got divorced soon.

• At the time of his marriage, his wife, Bachno Kaur, was more healthy and fit than Dara Singh.

• While in his village, Singh did non-professional wrestling for a while.

• In 1947, he moved to Singapore with his paternal uncle and started working there in a drum-manufacturing mill.

• During his stay in Singapore, people encouraged him to become a professional wrestler because of his build, height, and inclination towards wrestling.

  

• Dara Singh then worked at Singapore’s ‘Happy World Stadium’ for six months, but, he didn’t get any opportunity in wrestling.

• After that, he got an opportunity to receive his wrestling training at Singapore’s ‘Great World Stadium’ under the guidance of “Harnam Singh.”

• Basically, he received his training in an Indian style of wrestling called ‘Pehlwani.’

• Singh fought his first professional wrestling match with an Italian wrestler and the match was a draw.

• After playing the match, he received a prize money of $50 as an appreciation.

• In 1950, Dara Singh defeated wrestler “Tarlok Singh” and became the ‘Champion of Malaysia’ in Indian Style Wrestling.

• He received huge fame in 1951; when he defeated the Australian-Indian professional wrestler “King Kong” in Sri Lanka.

• In 1952, he became the first sportsman to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha.

• In 1953, during the Rustam-e-Hind freestyle wrestling tournament in Bombay, Dara Singh defeated “Tiger Joginder Singh” and became the Indian Champion. For this, he received a silver cup from “Maharaja Hari Singh.”

• In the film ‘Pehli Jhalak’ (1954), there was a scene in which “Om Prakash” dreams of wrestling with “Dara Singh.” He neither had to speak any dialogues nor act. The scene was shot without any difficulties.

• In 1959, he competed against so many great professional wrestlers like “King Kong” (Australia), “John Desilva” (New Zealand), “George Gordienko” (Canada), etc. and became the Commonwealth Champion.

  

• In 1960, Dara Singh got an offer to wrestle with “Bhagwan Dada” in the film ‘Bhakt Raj’ (1960), but he had to speak four to five small dialogues in the film. Though he was not able to speak the dialogues at that time, his dialogues were dubbed by some other artist.

• After that, he acted in the Devi Sharma’s super hit film ‘King Kong’ (1962).

• According to him, his command over languages was poor, and therefore, tutors had been kept teaching him Urdu and Hindi.

• After the release of the film ‘King Kong’ (1962), an admirer sent him a letter by asking, ‘You are India’s Bheem, why do you play Bheem.’ This remark motivated him to win the World Wrestling Championship.

• In 1963, the film director Mohammed Hussain & film producer Vinod Doshi of the film ‘Faulad’ wanted to sign a famous actress to act opposite “Dara Singh,” but no one was ready to act opposite him. Then, they signed actress “Mumtaz” who used to play minor roles at that time. The film became a hit at the box office.

  

• After that, Dara Singh acted in over 16 films with actress “Mumtaz,” and among them, 10 films were hit at the box-office. They were the highest paid B-Grade actors of that time, and his fee was ₹4 lakh per film.

• In 1968, he defeated “Lou Thesz” of America and became the ‘World Wrestling Champion.’ Before him, Gama Pehalwan was the only Indian wrestler to win the World Championship.

  

• In 1978, he founded the ‘Dara Film Studio’ in Mohali, Punjab, India.

  

• His last film as a lead actor was ‘Rustom’ (1982). After that, Dara Singh played character roles in the films.

• In the 1960s and 1970s, he was popularly known as the ‘Action King of Bollywood.’

• He had also acted in some shelved films like ‘Naagvanshi’ (1993), ‘Hamara Kanoon’ (1998), ‘Lohe Ka Dil’ (1999), and ‘Balle Balle America’ (2000).

• Dara Singh served as the chairman of ‘Cine and TV Artist Association’ (CINTAA) for several years.

• In June 1983, he took retirement from his wrestling career, and his last tournament was held in Delhi.

  

• He is popularly known for his role of Lord Hanuman in the mythological TV serial ‘Ramayan’ (1987-1988).

  

• In 1989, Dara Singh published his autobiography with the name ‘Meri Aatm Katha’ in Punjabi.

  

• For wrestling tournaments, he travelled all over the world except China.

• During his wrestling career, he did 500 professional fights, and he didn’t even lose a single one.

• Apart from wrestling on a professional level, Dara Singh had also wrestled on the invitation of the Kings of various Indian princely states.

• In 1996, he was inducted into the ‘Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame.’

• In January 1998, he joined the ‘Bharatiya Janata Party’ (BJP).

• Dara Singh was a member of the Rajya Sabha for BJP from 2003 to 2009.

  

• On 7 July 2012, he was admitted to the hospital after a heart attack, and on 11 July 2012, he was discharged; however, as per doctors’ report, he had very little recovery chances; as his brain had damaged significantly. On 12 July 2012, he died at his home in Mumbai due to cardiac arrest.

• Singh was the brother-in-law of the Bollywood actress, Malika.

• Dara Singh’s nephew, Shaad Randhawa is also an actor.

  

• He is the brother-in-law of the actor, Ratan Aulakh.

  

• His eldest daughter, Kamal, is married to the actor, Daman Maan.

• Till his death, he was also the president of ‘Jat Mahasabha,’ an organization of Jats in India.

• In December 2016, Akshay Kumar launched Seema Sonik Alimchand’s book ‘Deedara aka Dara Singh,’ which was based on his life.

  

• In April 2018, Dara Singh was inducted into the ‘WWE Hall of Fame.’

• On his 90th birthday in 2019, a huge statue of him was unveiled in his honour at Phase 6, Mohali, Punjab, next to Dara Studio.

  

• He featured in around 122 Hindi films and 22 Punjabi films in his entire acting career.

• Singh was a part of two national award winning Punjabi films, “Jagga” and “Mai Maa Punjab Dee.”

• In 2019, a comic book titled “The Epic Journey of the Great Dara Singh” was launched by his son, Vindu Dara Singh at the Oxford Bookstore in New Delhi.