Praveen Kumar Sobti (6 December 1947 – 7 February 2022) was an Indian

hammer A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nail (fastener), nails into wood, to sh ...

and

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field sport in which the participant athlete throws an oblate spheroid weight (object), weight called a discus in an attempt to mark a further distance than other competitors. It is a ...

er, actor, politician, and soldier with

Border Security Force The Border Security Force (BSF) is a central armed police force in India under the Ministry of Home Affairs. It is responsible for guarding India’s borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh. It was formed in the wake of the Indo-Pak War of 196 ...

. As a 20-year-old he joined then newly raised Border Security Force from where he attracted the attention of his officers through his fine athletic skills and went on to represent India at various athletic events in "

Discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field sport in which the participant athlete throws an oblate spheroid weight (object), weight called a discus in an attempt to mark a further distance than other competitors. It is a ...

". As an

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

he won four medals at the

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

, including two gold medals, won a silver medal in the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

and competed in two

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

. As an actor, he starred in more than 50

Hindi film Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and " Hollywood". The industry, producing films in t ...

s and played the famous character of

Bhima Bhima (, ), also known as Bhimasena (, ), is a hero and one of the most prominent characters in the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata''. As the second of the five Pandava brothers, Bhima was born to Kunti—the wife of King Pandu—fathered by Vayu, the ...

in B.R. Chopra's television series ''

Mahabharat The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the '' Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kurukshetra War, a war of succes ...

'' that started in 1988. As a politician he contested the 2013

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

Legislative

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

on an

Aam Aadmi Party The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP, ) is a List of political parties in India, political party in India. It was founded on 26 November 2012 by Arvind Kejriwal and his then-companions, following the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement against then gover ...

ticket, but lost.

Sports

Kumar was a star of Indian athletics in the 1960s and the 1970s. He dominated the Indian hammer and discus throws for several years. He won gold medals in the

at the 1966 and

1970 Asian Games The 6th Asian Games also known as Bangkok 1970, were held from 9 to 20 December 1970 in Bangkok, Thailand.- - Seoul, South Korea, had been selected to host the 6th Games but it declined due to both financial reasons and security threats from ne ...

, holding the Asian Games record of 56.76 metres. He was a silver medalist in the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Kingston and in the 1974 Asian Games in Tehran. He competed in the

1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Mexico 1968 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 October 1968, in Mexico City, Mexico. These were the first Ol ...

and in the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and officially branded as Munich 1972 (; ), were an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. It was the ...

Cinematic journey

Praveen Kumar's debut film was Raksha, a

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

style Bollywood movie starring

Jeetendra Jeetendra (born Ravi Kapoor ; 7 April 1942) is an Indian actor who is known for his work in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of the greatest actors of Hindi cinema. He is noted for his acting, style and dance. He has worked in more than Je ...

with him playing a large henchman gorilla inspired by Jaws of The Spy Who Loved Me. He did similar role of Justin, a large henchman fighting against Jeetendra in

Meri Awaz Suno "Meri Awaz Suno" (Urdu: میری آواز سنو, literal English translation: "listen to my voice") is a song by the Pakistani sufi rock band Junoon, released in 1995. It is the second track from the band's fourth album, '' Azadi'' (1997), r ...

. Praveen Kumar earned national acclaim when he played the role "

Bheem Bhima (, ), also known as Bhimasena (, ), is a hero and one of the most prominent characters in the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata''. As the second of the five Pandava brothers, Bhima was born to Kunti—the wife of King Pandu—fathered by Vayu, the ...

" in B R Chopra's popular mythological television serial ''

'', making him a household name. He played the role of "Saaboo" in

Chacha Chaudhary Chacha Chaudhary is an Indian comic book series, created by cartoonist Pran Kumar Sharma. The comic comes in ten Indian languages including Hindi and English and has sold over ten million copies. It has also been made into a 2002 live acti ...

(the TV series) for a large number of episodes. After the ''Mahabharata'' serial, he got many acting roles in Indian films, though he cut down on his acting career, in order to launch his political career in Haryana and Delhi. He also acted in the famous comedy

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

film

Michael Madana Kama Rajan ''Michael Madana Kama Rajan'' is a 1990 Indian Tamil-language comedy film directed by Singeetam Srinivasa Rao and written by Kamal Haasan, with Crazy Mohan penning the dialogues. The film stars Haasan in four roles alongside Khushbu, Urvasi a ...

as a Body Guard. Praveen Kumar was the actor to take the first blow of one of the most successful and famous punch dialogues of superstar

Amitabh Bachchan Amitabh Bachchan (; 11 October 1942) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema. He is often considered one of the greatest, most accomplished and commercially successful actors in the history of Indian cinema.* * * * * With a cinemati ...

, "Rishte Mein to Hum Tumhare Baap Hote hain, naam hai Shahenshah!" in

Tinnu Anand Tinu Anand (born Virender Raj Anand) is an Indian actor, director, writer and producer in Hindi cinema and a few Telugu and Tamil films. Personal life He is the son of veteran writer Inder Raj Anand, brother of producer Bittu Anand and unc ...

's blockbuster Shahenshah. He played the semi-comedic role of the legendary "Mukhtar Singh", a drug dealer who later becomes a dairy owner, upon being beaten up by Shahenshah.

Politics

In 2013 Kumar joined the

(AAP). He contested the Delhi assembly elections from the Wazirpur constituency on an AAP ticket, but lost. The next year, he joined the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

(BJP).

Death

Praveen died from a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

in New Delhi on the night of 7 February 2022, at the age of 74.

Filmography

References

External links