Premnath Malhotra

Biography

Prem Nath Malhotra, better known as Prem Nath, (21 November 1926~ 3 November 1992) was an Indian actor and director, who was best known for his works in Hindi films.

 Nath made his debut with the film Ajit (1948), and went on to appear in over 100 films throughout his career. He was nominated for three Filmfare Awards, and later retired in 1985.

He was born in 1926 in the Karimpura locality near Ghanta Ghar in Peshawar. His family moved to Jubbulpore (present-day Jabalpur) after partition and he moved to Bombay where he was discovered as an actor.

He fell in love with actress Bina Rai during the filming of Aurat. They married and formed a production company together called P.N. Films. Their children are actor Prem Krishen and Kailash Nath (Monty). Premnath also dated the famous actress Madhubala but stopped when she became interested in actor Dilip Kumar.

They are also the grandparents of actress Akanksha Malhotra and director Siddharth Malhotra who are Prem Krishen's children. Adiraj Malhotra and Arjun Malhotra are the sons of Kailash Nath. 

His sister Krishna married Raj Kapoor while his other sister Uma was married to veteran Hindi Film actor Prem Chopra. His brothers Rajendra Nath and Narendra Nath were also actors who mostly appeared in comic and supporting roles.

 He was also a close friend of the actress Asha Parekh. He died of a heart attack in 1992 at the age of 65, just 18 days before his 66th birthday.

Prem Nath (right) with actor Prem Chopra (left), who was his sister's husband.

Premnath made his film debut in Ajit (1948), opposite Monica Desai, which was one of the first color films. He got major roles in Raj Kapoor's first directorial films Aag (1948) and Barsaat (1949) which was his first major success. 

In 1951, Nath starred opposite Madhubala in Badal which was a big box-office success. In 1952, he co-starred with Dilip Kumar in the swashbuckling technicolor film Aan which was the highest-grossing film at the time.

He went on to appear in many films in leading roles often opposite his wife Bina Rai which failed to do well. He set up a production company named P.N Films and directed the film Samundar (1957), which was a box office disaster and remained his only directorial effort.

 His career as a leading man declined in the late 1950s and early 1960s with the 1963 film Rustom Sohrab being one of his last films in the leading role.