Raj Babbar

Biography

Babbar was born in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India into a Punjabi family on 23 June 1952. His family has long settled in Tundla, Firozabad since the partition. He did his initial schooling at Mufid-E-Aam Inter College, Agra. He is an alumnus of the 1975 class of the National School of Drama and a graduate of Agra College.

He trained in the Method School of Acting at NSD, which is involved in Street Theatre. After his training in New Delhi, he moved to Mumbai and started his film career with Reena Roy, one of the well-known actresses of that time. 

He gained notoriety for his horrific portrayal of a rapist in the movie Insaf Ka Tarazu, in which he assaulted the heroine Zeenat Aman, and later her sister, and in the end, is shot and killed by the heroine.

He became a consistent feature of the B. R. Chopra banner; such as in Nikaah with Deepak Parashar, Salma Agha, and in Aaj Ki Aawaz with Smita Patil and others.

He also achieved success in Punjabi cinema as he gave remarkable performances in Chann Pardesi (1980), Marhi Da Deeva (1989), and Long Da Lishkara (1986) – three art house movies with serious themes treated in a realistic manner, and this was an innovation for the Punjabi films field.

He also acted in the hit Punjabi films Aasra Pyar Da (1983), Mahaul Theek Hai (1999), Shaheed Uddham Singh(2000), Yaaran Naal Baharan (2005), Ek Jind Ek Jaan (2006), Apni Boli Apna Des (2009) and Tera Mera Ki Rishta(2009). 

He appeared in several movies as an antagonist in movies like Insaf Ka Tarazu (1980), Saazish (1988), Aankhen (1993), Dalaal (1993), The Gambler(1995), Andaz (1994), Yaarana(1995), Barsaat (1995), Ziddi (1997), Gundagardi (1997), Daag the Fire (1999), Indian (2001) and many more, some movies became successful, but some were commercial flops.

Raj Babbar entered politics by joining the Janata Dal in 1989, which was led by V. P. Singh. He later joined Samajwadi Party and was elected as a Member of the Parliament of India three times. From 1994 to 1999 he was a member of the Rajya Sabha. He was re-elected in the 14th Lok Sabha elections for his second term in 2004. 

He was suspended from the Samajwadi Party in 2006. Later he joined the Indian National Congress in 2008 and was elected for his fourth term as Member of Parliament in 2009, by defeating Dimple Yadav, wife of Akhilesh Yadav and daughter-in-law of Mulayam Singh Yadav. 

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he contested from Ghaziabad and lost to General V. K. Singh. He was appointed as the president of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC), but in the 2019 elections, he couldn't even manage to save his own seat and lost to Rajkumar Chahar of the Bharatiya Janata Party by a huge margin of 4,95,065 votes.

Raj Babbar, in the capacity of Congress spokesman, created controversy in 2013, by stating that Rs.12 is sufficient for a common man to get a full meal in Mumbai, which drew severe criticism. 

He also said that a poor person in India can get full meals two times a day, within Rs. 28 to 32 and opposition parties termed Raj Babbar's statement laughable. Later, he regretted his comments. In July 2013, he compared Narendra Modi to Adolf Hitler, which also created controversy.

He married Nadira Zaheer, daughter of noted theatre personality Sajjad Zaheer. Arya Babbar and Juhi Babbar are his children from Nadira. By leaving Nadira he married the actress Smita Patil who gave birth to their son Prateik Babbar. He has two younger brothers, Kishan and Vinod (deceased), and four younger sisters.

Raj Babbar's niece Kajri Babbar is an upcoming filmmaker.

He launched his own home production; Babbar Films Pvt. Ltd. along with his brother Kishan. Under this, he has produced two feature films, Karm Yodha (1992) and Kash Aap Hamare Hote (2003), and the serial Maharaja Ranjit Singh (TV series) (2010).