Happy Birthday Paresh Rawal! Tracing The Actor’s Journey From Bank To Bollywood & Parliament

After doing iconic movies such as Hera Pheri, OMG, Andaz Apna Apna and Sardar, veteran Bollywood actor Paresh Rawal is ready with his next – ‘The Taj Story’, shooting for which begins on July 20.

Beginning his career with the 1985 film Arjun in a supporting role, Rawal, who turned 69 on Thursday, was also part of the cast of the Doordarshan TV Serial, Bante Bigadte. Then came Shiva, Mohra, Tamanna, China Gate, Aitraaz, Zilla Ghaziabad and many others. He did a string of roles as the quintessential villain in over 100 films and gave his level best to ace being the antagonist.

The unexpected twist towards comedy came with Andaz Apna Apna. Who can forget the iconic line, “Teja main hoon, mark idhar hai”? Films like Hera Pheri in which he played the unforgettable ‘Babu Bhaiya’ further cemented him as an actor in this genre.

Rawal earned rave reviews for essaying the role of Vallabhbhai Patel in Ketan Mehta’s 1993 biographical film Sardar.  His other notable release was Rajkumar Hirani’s Sanju with Ranbir Kapoor, in which he plays actor Sunil Dutt’s role.

His love life is as chequered as his career. He fell head over heels in love with Swaroop Sampat, Miss India 1979, at a function in 1975 and spent 12 years wooing her before they tied the knot in 1987. Swaroop, incidentally, was offered many TV roles, including the cult soap Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, which Rawal had turned down earlier.

Years later, Rawal donned a new hat – that of a Member of Parliament representing the Bharatiya Janata Party. He won the Ahmedabad East constituency in the General Election 2014. The same year, he was honoured with the prestigious Padma Shri award. He served as a Member of Parliament from 2014 to 2019, leaving a lasting impact on the political landscape of the country.

Another memorable role that he would have played is that of Narendra Modi in the biopic based on the PM, which was shelved. Asked about it later, the actor said, “Not now, three-four films have already been made on him. But the story is very close to my heart.”

A lesser-known fact about his life is that he was ‘Babu Bhaiya’ in real life when he worked in a bank before making a foray into Bollywood. It’s hard to imagine ‘Babu Bhaiya’, sitting behind a desk, crunching numbers. However, that’s exactly what he did before deciding that banking was not his cup of tea.