Entertainment | Celebrity

Obituary: Dara Singh, from wrestler to Bollywood star

The champion wrestler became a muscle-bound Bollywood star after playing the Hindu monkey god Hanuman

The Telegraph Group Times, London 2012
Published: 10:44 July 14, 2012

Image Credit: AFP
In this photograph taken on May 3, 2011, Veteran Indian Bollywood actor and accomplished wrestler Dara Singh (right) and his son actor Vindoo attend The Dadasaheb Phalke Awards 2011 ceremony in Mumbai, India. Wrestler-turned-actor Dara Singh, who passed away on Thursday, will always be remembered for one of the most exciting fights in the history of wrestling competitions when he lifted an almost 200kg King Kong of Australia over his head and twirled him around.

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Dara Singh, who has died aged 83, was a champion wrestler turned Bollywood star who became famous for his depiction of the monkey god Hanuman in the hugely popular Indian television series Ramayan, an adaptation of the Hindu epic the Ramayana.

The Ramayana, one of the two great epics of India (the other being the Mahabharata), tells the story of Rama, Prince of Ayodhya (an incarnation of the God Vishnu) and his quest to rescue his beautiful wife Sita (an incarnation of the goddess Laxmi) after she is abducted by the evil 10-headed Ravana from Lanka (modern-day Sri Lanka).

Rama gathers an army of monkeys to search for her and together they track down Ravana, kill him and rescue Sita. The couple’s triumphant return to Ayodhya marks the beginning of a Golden Age for mankind.

Hanuman is the resourceful monkey general who helps Rama defeat Ravana and rescue Sita. With the elephant deity Ganesh, he is one of Hinduism’s best-loved gods.

When Ramanand Sagar’s 78-part television series was broadcast in India in 1987-1988, it drew more than 100 million viewers, bringing the country to a virtual standstill every Sunday morning. Streets were empty; trains and buses stopped running; religious services (Hindu and non-Hindu) and political meetings were postponed. In villages, hundreds of people would gather around a single screen to watch the show, while in millions of Indian homes incense burners were lit on top of the television set.

Singh’s broad shoulders and wrestler’s physique suited the character of the simian action hero perfectly, and he played the role with such conviction that many Indians thought he must be the real Hanuman.