Kader Khan

Biography

Kader Khan (22 October 1937 – 31 December 2018) was an Indian actor, screenwriter and film producer. As an actor, he appeared in over 300 Bollywood films after his debut film in the 1973 film Daag, starring Rajesh Khanna, in which he acted as a prosecuting attorney.

He was a prolific actor and screenwriter in Hindi cinema in the period late 1970s to 90s and wrote dialogues for 200 films. Khan graduated from Ismail Yusuf College affiliated with Bombay University.

Before entering the film industry in the early 1970s, he taught at M. H. Saboo Siddik College of Engineering, Mumbai, as a professor of civil engineering.

Kader Khan was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, on 22 October 1937 into a Sunni Muslim family. 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).

Khan had three brothers, Shams ur Rehman, Fazal Rehman, and Habib ur Rehman. He is an ethnic Pashtun of the Kakar tribe. Khan was raised in the Kamathipura neighborhood of Mumbai after his family moved there from Kabul.

He enrolled in a local municipal school and later in the Ismail Yusuf College after which he graduated in Engineering specializing 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.

While performing in a play named Taash Ke Patey, he was noted by comedian Agha who then suggested actor Dilip Kumar 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. 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.

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.

Khan lived in Mumbai, until moving to Toronto due to health reasons. He had three sons: Sarfaraz Khan, Shahnawaz Khan, and a third son Quddus who lived in Canada and died in 2021.

His son Sarfaraz Khan has also acted in several films. It was reported that Khan took the citizenship of Canada. In 2014, Khan visited Mecca to perform Hajj.

Khan had supranuclear palsy, a degenerative disease. He was hospitalized on 28 December 2018 complaining of "breathlessness" in Canada, where he stayed with his son and daughter-in-law while seeking treatment.

On 31 December 2018 (EST), Khan's son, Sarfaraz Khan, confirmed that Khan had died. His funeral ceremony was held at ISNA mosque in Mississauga, and he was buried in Brampton's Meadowvale Cemetery.