- Born
- Died
- Birth nameDara Singh Randhawa
- Height6′ 2″ (1.88 m)
- Dara Singh Randhawa (Born Deedar Singh Randhawa, Nov 19, 1928- 12 July 2012 ) was an Indian Wrestler, Film and Television Actor, Director, Producer and Member of Parliament. He was encouraged to take up pehelwani since an early age. He started his wrestling career in Singapore in 1949 and Films in 1952. He hails from the village of Dharmuchak in Amritsar, Punjab. In July 2012, He suffered a cardiac arrest and eventually died on July 12, at his home in Mumbai. He was cremated at Juhu Crematorium with a funeral service attended by thousands In 2019, A statue was erected in his honour at Phase 6, Mohali, Punjab next to his Film Studio, Dara Studio.
Films and TV- Dara started his film career in 1952 with Sangdil and went on to do between 150-200 films and TV serials. He was a part of two national award winning Punjabi Films, Jagga and Mai Maa Punjab Dee. He established Punjab's first film Studio, Dara Studio.
Family- Dara has 6 Children. 1 from his first marriage and 5 from his second.
Wrestling- Dara left studies at an early age to work on his family farm and wrestled locally. He went to Singapore for work in 1949 on board the SS Rajula and had his first international kushti win at Jakarta, Indonesia in the same year. He earlier worked at a Drum Manufacturing plant and later as a security personnel, before doing wrestling full time. During this time he dabbled between Kushti, Freestyle Wrestling and Pro wrestling. He went on to win Champion of Malaysia, Indian Style (1951). This cemented his name which eventually made him rise up in the professional and freestyle wrestling ring, leading him to Rustom-E-Hind (1954), Champion of Commonwealth (1959), Rustom-E-Punjab (1966), World Champion (1968) and NWA Canadian Open Tag Team Championship, earning him a spot in Wrestling Observer Newsletter's Hall of Fame (1996) and WWE Hall of Fame. (2018).
Biographies- His auto-biography is titled Meri Aatamkatha. (Original Language- Punjabi) His biography Deedara! aka Dara Singh is written by Seema Sonik Alimchand
He is also the subject of a comic book, Journey of the Great Dara Singh, launched in 2019 at Mumbai Comic-Con.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Yuvraj Singh
- Children
- RelativesDamian Singh Maan(Grandchild)
- Portrayed grandfatherly figures from 1990s onwards.
- His laugh.
- Muscular physique.
- Dara was paired opposite Mumtaz in 16 Hindi films and 10 were box office hits.
- Macho Man" Randy Savage visited Bombay,India (Sunday, November 21 1994 ). He was there to trash out the fine print to a WWF tour to hit India early in 1995. He met Bollywood legend and former professional wrestler Dara Singh. His photograph was on the cover of 'The Times of India', the premier newspaper of Bombay. On Monday he will lectured students at a leading public school as the guest of the principal. There is a report on his visit to city entitled 'Savage floors all with niceties' in the paper. Bollywood Film producer Ashok Thakeria and his company tied up with the WWE and planned an entire publicity campaign for the forthcoming event. But it all went down the drain when Bollywood producers Tito and Tony (Juneja) decided to play a smart game with Ashok.The producer duo cashed in all the hype that Ashok generated,invited their own stars ( who lied to be part of the WWF/ WWE but when Ashok Thakeria threatened legal proceedings, turned back saying they were part of the N.W.A.) and had their matches in a span of 2 weeks.
- Became wrestling champion of India before winning the world championship crown.
- He became the Commonwealth Champion in 1959 and was 1968 World Champion in Wrestling defeating American Lou Thesz.
- From his first marriage, he has a son - Parduman Singh Randhawa. From his second marriage, he has five children - two sons and three daughters, which includes TV and film actor Vindu Dara Singh.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content