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Pran, who has worked in more than 400 films, is counted among the best villains of Bollywood. In the 50s to 80s, he played such characters in many films that people started considering him a villain in real life too.
Pran's image in real life had deteriorated so much that he himself was afraid that if he attended any public event, people would abuse him. Even Pran's daughter had told him to change his image.
Recently, in the podcast 'In Conversation with Ishaan', veteran journalist Roshmila Bhattacharya told some interesting stories while talking about Pran.
She told that Pran's daughter was upset with her father's on-screen bad man image. The daughter had told Pran, “My classmates tell me that your father is a villain. Please do good roles to change your image. Why don't you do good roles?” Roshmila further said that during this time Pran had signed Manoj Kumar's film Upkar in which he played the role of Malang Chacha. After this role, Pran's image changed a lot and people started liking him a lot in positive roles as well.
When Pran got scared after being surrounded by the crowd
Roshmila Bhattacharya narrated another incident related to Pran and said, there was a wedding of a person associated with the film industry in which Pran sahab also went. There was a huge crowd there and we had to park the car a little distance away and walk to the venue.
When Pran sahab started walking, he told me, I was afraid that these people will start abusing me. When the crowd saw Pran, there was silence for a few moments, then one person said, Malang Chacha is coming. I saw that the whole crowd automatically moved back and cleared the way for Pran sahab. Seeing this, Pran sahab told me, the respect I got that day made one thing clear that whatever character you play, whether hero or villain, you become that for the audience.
died in 2013
It was impossible for the hit films of the 60s and 70s to not have Praan in them. At the peak of his career, Praan used to charge more than the heroes of that time, Amitabh and Shatrughan Sinha. In 1998, at the age of 78, Pran had a heart attack. After this, he decided not to work in films. But, on Big B's request, he worked in Tere Mere Sapne (1996) and Mrityudaata (1997).
From 2000 to 2007, he was seen in a few more films. Pran died on 12 July 2013 at the age of 93 at Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai after a prolonged illness.