his career began in the early 1940s when he made his acting debut in the 1943 film "najma" which was directed by mehboob khan. the film featured him playing the father of ashok kumar despite being only a year older than him. he became a regular with director mehboob khan's films such as "anmol ghadi" (1946), "andaz" (1949), "aan" (1952) and "amar" (1954). his other notable film roles included "do bigha zamin" (1953) as a cruel landowner, "devdas" (1955) as devdas's father and the hollywood film "tarzan goes to india" (1962) as a maharajah. from the 1960s through to the end of the 1980s he appeared mostly as a judge or police commissioner. he was born in rampur, uttar pradesh and died in mumbai in 1997.