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A
grateful heart at 80 The just-turned 80, yet still very active (despite
some problems with the heart), pran, undoubtedly the greatest bad
man of Hindi films, is also one of the most humble, obedient and grateful
men. Stories of his acts of philanthropy and social service are legion
but he doesn't talk about them. "When you give something with one
hand you should make sure the other hand doesn't know", pran says.
The speech he made at a recent awards function, in which he was declared
the villain of the millennium, literally moved thousands of people
to tears. Pran said (in Hindi) " Award milne ke baad hum bolega to
bologe ki bolta hai (one of his popular dialogues in Majboor with
Amitabh Bachchan). Said an emotional Pran: " At the outset I am extremely
grateful to the organization for presenting me with this precious
and literally very heavy award which not only forces me to bow my
shoulder but also naturally inspires me to bow my head in sheer gratitude
before all of you because of whom I am standing here today. |
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I
am acutely aware of the fact that I am not the only winner of this
award. There are so many others. I owe this award to innumerable people.
I am grateful to all my producers who gave me work for fifty long
years, my directors who taught me the basics of good acting, the writers
who created all those good charters for me, those roles for me, created
charters and wrote lines specially to go with all the characters I
played. And above all, I am grateful to all millions of my people
who saw my films and wrote letters telling me how much they loved
me as the most hated man and encouraged me to keep going like every
day was a new day, every film a new film, every role a new role. But
for a little health problem I still feel youthful, bright, always
in the best of spirits. I am on the stage now only because of all
of you. Today, bend on my knees (he literally bent on his knees on
stage) before all of and thankyou with all my folded hands.
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