He was certainly not a prince among actors, still he liked to call himself ‘Raj Kumar’, just as much as he liked to call every person - "Jaani"! Born as Kulbhushan Nath, this handsome, Sialkot-born arts graduate and for a while a police officer, became ‘Raj Kumar’ to enter Hindi films in 1952. He first made his mark as a character actor in Mother India (as heroine Nargis’s husband) and Paigham (as hero Dilip Kumar’s elder brother) to develop a reputation as a scene stealer who held his own against any thespian.

Waqt – a B.R.Chopra multi-starrer, made Raj Kumar into a star in his own right. A star, who belted cheeky, firebrand one-liners like "Chinoy Seth, sheeshon ke gharon mein rahenewale doosron pe patthar nahi fenka karte!" with deadpan expression, in a heavily over-done, grating voice. Even amongst big names like Sunil Dutt, Shashi Kapoor, Balraj Sahni, Sharmila Tagore and Sadhana, he stole the show in a sort-of-negative role. Director Yash Chopra had made this routine ‘Lost and found’ story of three brothers interesting by making it a love triangle between two brothers, which turns into a murder mystery with a gripping courtroom finale.

Heer Ranjha is a film where Raj Kumar breaks the mould to play a soft, romantic lead. Director Chetan Anand’s take on this immortal love story between two star-crossed lovers belonging to rival sects was a milestone film – a true musical, where all the dialogues were lyrical – a triumph of Kaifi Azmi’s literary genius. Raj Kumar did full justice to the legendary lost lover ‘Ranjha’ but Priya Rajvansh with her wooden face and dull dialogue delivery was nightmarish as ‘Heer’.

Karmayogi is an example of trashy ‘Dialogue king’ rut that Raj Kumar had degenerated into in latter part of his career. He plays a father and son double role – a father who believes that crime pays instantly and raises his son into a criminal. To provide the moral counter-argument, there is a left- behind religious mother (Mala Sinha) and her dutiful son (Jeetendra).

By then, his larger-than-life image, his artificiality and his eccentricities had made Raj Kumar (to quote a famous ad!)– "Filmi, very filmi!" He is supposed to have told Prakash Mehra, who wanted him to do Zanjeer, "Jaani, it is a good story, a certain hit but I won’t work in it because your hair smell of Sarson Ka Tel"!