Sajjan

Sajjan Biography

Sajjan was a noted actor associated with Bollywood known for playing character roles. He was also a well-known stage actor. He played the role of Betaal in the iconic Doordarshan series of early 1990s, Vikram Betal, and the king’s role was played by Arun Govil. As a film actor he was associated with several iconic movies of 1950s and 1960s such as Bees Saal Baad, Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Kabuliwala, April Fool, Rail Ka Dibba and Jhumroo. In the 1950s during his younger days, he also played lead hero and parallel lead in many movies such as Sainya, Rail Ka Dibba, Bahana, Sheesha, Malkin, Nirmohi, Kasturi, Mehmaan, Lagan, Girl School, Paridhaan etc. He played Hema Malini’s father in Chupa Rustom starring Dev Anand and Vijay Anand. He also wrote dialogues and lyrics for movies during his early days.

His screen name is Sajjan. His full name is Sajjan Lal Purohit. He was born on 15 January 1921 in Jaipur, Rajputana. He completed his graduation, desired to become a lawyer, but became a full-time actor. In 1941 he reached Kolkata to work as an apprentice in a laboratory of East India Company, and during this time he played brief film roles such as Masoom (1941) and Chowringhee (1942). During World War II, he moved to Mumbai and worked as an assistant under famous film director Kidar Sharma, a time when Raj Kapoor was also working as an assistant director. He later worked under Gajanan Jagirdar and Vakil Sahib.

Associated with cinema as an actor, lyricist and dialogue director in the 1940s, he also worked as a stage actor of Prithvi theaters during this period. Dhanyavad marked his stage debut as an actor and he played hero’s role in Bombay Theatre's Muqaddar in 1950. By that time he got busy with Bollywood doing lead and side roles.  By early 1960s he moved to character roles, and was associated with industry till mid-1980s. Shatru (1986) was his last release. Later he worked in television series. He passed away on 17 May 2000. He appeared in around 200 movies.

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Updated: November 28, 2017