Jankidas Mehra

Jankidas Mehra was born in the year 1910. He was born when India was under the British rule. His birth place was Lahore, which is currently a part of Pakistan. Jankidas was a professional actor in Bollywood. Apart from being an actor, he was a professional cyclist as well. He also used to Produce film and write scripts. He first stepped into Bollywood in the year 1930, and from then till 1997, Jankidas worked in over a thousand movies as an actor. The 1936 Olympic games were held in Berlin. Luckily, Jankidas was one of the members of the International Olympic Committee and also the only Indian to be present there.

Being a professional cyclist, he broke many records between 1934 and 1942. Mehra was the founder of the Cycling Federation of India along with S. Bhoot in the year 1940. His debut film was Khazanchi in the year 1941. He played a major role in the film and he gained much appreciation for his acting. The film was produced in Lahore at that time. In the year 1946, Mehra acted in a daily soap called Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani. It was the first and the last time that he acted in a daily soap. From that year onwards, whichever film he acted in, we always saw him portraying a challenging role.

His acting became better and better with more films and his roles became more difficult with time. In the Indian Film Industry, Jankidas was the first ever Production Designer. Mehra was a great designer. Pathar and Warrant were some of the movies which were designed by him. His contributions in designing led to the discovery of many new actors and actresses who would have never made it to Bollywood if Jankidas never experimented. Yaadon Ki Kasam was a movie which was solely based n the script written by Jankidas.

Mehra was awarded with the Lifetime Achievement Award in the year 1996 by the I. M. P. P. Association. He has also earned many international awards. Jankidas was a heart patient. He had a weak heart. He spent many days in the hospital, after he suffered a heart attack. When he returned home from the hospital, he could only live for two days before leaving this world. On the 18th of June in the year 2003, Mehra died in his Juhu home after suffering a heart attack. He was 93 years of age when he died. He has four children, two daughters and two sons.