Nazir Hussain

Nazir Hussain, also credited as Nasir Hussain (15 May 1922 – 16 October 1987) was an Indian film actor, director and screenwriter.He was famous as a character actor in Hindi Cinema and acted in almost 500 films. Dev Anand starred in a large proportion of the films he acted in.

Nazir Hussain's father Shahabzad Khan was a guard in the Railways and Hussain grew up in Lucknow. He himself worked as a fireman in railways for few months and soon joined the British army during World War II. He was posted in Malaysia and Singapore where he became a prisoner of war. After being freed he came under the influence of Subhas Chandra Bose and joined the Indian National Army (INA). He was accorded the status of freedom fighter and was given free railway pass for life.

After INA, unable to find jobs he began performing plays. B. N. Sircar of New Theatres impressed by his performance called him to Calcutta to join New Theatres. In Calcutta he met Bimal Roy and became his assistant. He joined with Bimal Roy to make the film Pahela Aadmi based on the INA experience. He not only acted in the film but also wrote the story and co-wrote the dialogues for the film. 'Pehla Aadmi' released in 1950 launched him to stardom and he became a permanent fixture in Bimal Roy's movies. Later he worked in many socialist theme films like Do Bigha Zamin, Devdas, Naya Daur. Munimji a 1955 Indian Hindi movie was the first film he done with actor Dev Anand. The story idea was by Ranjan, and screenplay and dialogues by Nazir Hussain. The team of Mukherjee, Nazir Hussain, Dev Anand and music director S.D. Burman later got together to produce another movie, Paying Guest, in 1957. Main Sunder Hoon is a 1971 Bollywood drama film directed by R. Krishnan and Nazir Hussain.

Hussain discussed the possibility of a Bhojpuri cinema industry with Indian president Rajendra Prasad. He is considered as the Pitamah of Bhojpuri cinema. Hussain created Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo (1962), the first Bhojpuri film. Nazir turned producer with Bhojpuri film Hamaar Sansar and also directed it. Hussain was also known for the hit Bhojpuri film Balam Pardesia in the late 1970s.

Nazir had worked with several eminent actor and actress of Hindi Cinema.