Tributes pour in for Dara Singh, Punjab multiplexes to hold special screening of his films

In an honour of legendary wrestler-turned-actor Dara Singh, who died yesterday, owners of multiplexes in Punjab have decided to show his films this weekend. Dara, who was a native of Punjab, begun with a successful wrestling career in the 1950s and 60s and later on worked in over 100 movies. "We have decided to get three of his movies from the archives including the hits like Rustom-e-Baghdad and Dara Singh: The Iron Man at the end of this week. He was a cult just like Superman and Spiderman in Hollywood" PVR Group president Pramod Arora said. M S Karthik, Marketing head, Cinepolis, also said, "For the next few days, we will have a montage of Dara ji's scenes from some of his blockbusters as a homage to India's original superhero. These slides are usually shown at the beginning of a movie and intervals." In the mean time, tributes poured in for the late yesteryear actor. Veteran actress Mumtaz who started her career with Dara in Faulad, said, I was 15 when I did my first film as a lead actress. The year was 1963 and I played Rajkumari Padma opposite Daraji in Faulad. Till then, I'd been working as a child artiste. After that, we did many films together. She added, After working with Daraji, my luck changed for the better. I got to work with A-grade stars like Rajendra Kumar, Feroz Khan and Rajesh Khanna. I went into a better league. After I got married to Mayur (Madhvani) and shifted to London, Daraji and I fell out of touch. But when my sister Mallika married his younger brother Randhawa, I would meet him occasionally at her home or he would come over to ours. I had very high regard for him. Legendary athlete Milkha Singh has also remembered wrestler and the Bollywood actor as a brother and a self-made man. He was just like a brother to me. I recall in 1955-56 we stayed in a same hotel in Mumbai when we were practising in that city for a sports event," Milkha told PTI. Yesterday Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also paid his tributes to the legendary actor.