Dara Singh, a wrestler first
Wrestler-turned-actor Dara Singh, who remained undefeated throughout his wrestling career, lost the final battle of life in Mumbai today. He was 83.
Wrestler-turned-actor Dara Singh, who remained undefeated throughout his wrestling career, lost the final battle of life in Mumbai today. He was 83.
Born in a Jat Sikh family to Balwant Kaur and Surat Singh Randhawa in November 1928 in the village Dharmuchak of Amritsar district in Punjab, Dara Singh was trained in an Indian style of wrestling, Pehlwani.
Apart from wrestling in tournaments, he wrestled on invitation of kings of Indian princely states in fairs and carnivals.
In the world of wrestling, he competed against some of the greatest names like King Kong (Australia), George Gordienko (Canada), John Desilva (New Zealand) and others.
He went to Singapore in 1947. He became the Champion of Malaysia (Indian style wrestling) by defeating Tarlok Singh in Kuala Lumpur. He also toured almost all far-east countries as a Professional Wrestler. He returned to India in 1952 and became the Indian Champion in 1954.
He won the title of 'Rustam-E-Punjab' and 'Rustam-e-Hind' for his wrestling prowess. In 1959, he became the Commonwealth Champion.
Singh fought almost every wrestling champion of the world. He is the only professional wrestler who has defeated all his rival champions in their home crowd. In 1968, he defeated USA's Lou Thesz and became Champion of the World.
He retired from the wrestling arena in 1983. In 1996 he was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame.
Singh included over 500 professional fights to his credit, all undefeated. He announced his retirement from wrestling in 1983.
He entered into films in 1950s and his remembered for his roles in movies King Kong, Faulad. But his most memorable role was in TV serial Ramayana, in which he portrayed the role of 'Hanuman'. He was also a member of Rajya Sabha from 2003-2009.