In a career that spanned 25 years, Balraj Sahni played a variety of roles, displaying an unusually strong intensity in each. Just ahead of his 35th death anniversary on April 13, SMM Ausaja profiles the actor in Tehelka. 
A list to name ten greatest actors of Hindi cinema is incomplete without Balraj Sahni. This powerhouse of talent contributed to the success of acclaimed filmmakers like Chetan Anand, Bimal Roy, B R Chopra, K A Abbas, and M S Sathyu in some of the greatest films ever made in this country. He is also a luminary of the 50s theatre movement, Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) with numerous plays to his credit. He changed various avatars before settling as an actor in the Bombay film industry. In a career spanning 25 years, Sahni played a wide variety of roles displaying an unusually strong intensity in each. More difficult the role, the better was performance.
Born on May 1, 1913 in Rawalpindi, Sahni was named Yudhishthir. He graduated in Hindi and received a masters in English Literature from Government College, Lahore before joining family business in Rawalpindi. Being influenced by his professor Jaswantrai’s persona, Sahni eventually married the Jaswantrai’s daughter Damyanti. The couple was blessed with two children – Parikshit and Shabnam. Their creative yearnings led them to launch a weekly newspaper – Monday Morning. The journal didn’t do well due to marketing and investment constraints and was discontinued in six months. Sahni turned to Rabindranath Tagore’s Shantiniketan in West Bengal in the late thirties to take up teaching. Finding himself in a creative hub, he began to experiment with theatre while Damyanti pursued her masters.
