Amitabh Bachchan calls this actor 'architect of civilisation'; it's not Ashok Kumar, Guru Dutt, Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor

Born on May 1, 1913 in Rawalpindi, British India, Balraj Sahni is considered among the finest actors in the Hindi film industry. He is best known for his powerful and realistic performances in Hindi films such a Do Bigha Zameen, Garm Hava, Kabuliwala, Waqt, and Haqeeqat. The legendary actor is remembered for his naturalistic acting style, that reflected deep empathy, social realism, and humanism. He passed away at the age of 59 after suffering a massive cardiac arrest on April 13, 1973. In a recent interview, Amitabh Bachchan called Balraj Sahni "the architect of civilisation."

Talking to The Times of India, the Sholay star said, "One doesn’t rate artists like Balraj Sahni, Lata Mangeshkar, Dilip Kumar, Bhimsen Joshi, Ravi Shankar, Laurence Olivier, and Rabindranath Tagore. They are what they are - the architects of civilization. I believe that Balraj-ji ushered in the culture of natural acting in our cinema. You see, he didn’t give performances. He was just there. One didn’t see his presence as much as felt it."

Picking Sahni's favourite performance, Amitabh added, "Every part he played is memorable for its understated brilliance. But if you insist on picking one, it would be M.S. Sathyu’s Garm Hava. That is a performance which stands tall in our cinema. It defines that rare moment when our quest for perfection reaches fruition. Balraj Sahni spent months and months preparing for the part of the Muslim patriarch. Since he was not a Muslim, he felt he needed to work even harder to get there."

"The same amount of labour and discipline went into his performance as the rickshaw puller in Bimal Roy’s Do Bigha Zameen. I believe Balraj-ji would ply the rickshaw on the streets of Kolkata, and no one recognized him! That’s how transformative his performance was. We actors of successive generations never got the opportunity to prepare so comprehensively. Even if I did, I would never hope to achieve that level of excellence", the superstar concluded.

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