Legendary Indian actor Pran passes away at 93

MUMBAI: Versatile Indian actor Pran, the star of super-hit movies like Don and Ram Aur Shyam, passed away this evening at the age of 93, Indian media reported.

He breathed his last at Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital.

Pran Krishan Sikand (born 12 February 1920 - died 12 July 2013 ), better known by his mononym, Pran, was a multiple Filmfare and BFJA award-winning Indian actor, known as a movie villain and character actor in Hindi cinema from the 1940s to the 1990s.

He acted as a hero from 1940–47 and as a villain from 1942–1991 and played supporting and character roles from 1948–2007.

On May 3 this year, at the National Awards presentation ceremony, he was honored with a Dadasaheb Phalke life achievement award, which he could not receive personally owing to his deteriorating health.

Pran had been seriously ill for the last few months.

Pran has received numerous awards and honours in his career. He won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award in 1967, 1969 and 1972 and was awarded the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.

He was awarded as the 'Villain of the Millennium' by Stardust in 2000. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 2001 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2013 (which is the biggest award in Indian cinema) for his contributions towards Indian cinema.

In 2010, he was named on the list of CNN's Top 25 Asian actors of all time.

Pran was famous for his style and sophistication on-screen, and was credited with making the role of the villain as important as that of the hero. He also played many supporting characters, apart from villains, most notable the red-haired Pathan Sher Khan in Zanjeer, the film that made Amitabh Bachchan a star.

From the '60s to the early '80s, Pran appeared in almost every big film made in Bollywood. For some years, he was often better-paid than the hero and heroine. Pran is also credited with giving Amitabh Bachchan his biggest break, having recommended that director Prakash Mehra cast him as Inspector Vijay in 1973's Zanjeer.