Kabir Bedi in Sandokan (1976)
Italian postcard by Titanus. Photo: Titanus. Kabir Bedi in Sandokan (Sergio Solima, 1976). Caption: Finally in the cinema on a gigantic screen in colour, Titanus presents Kabir Bedi in Sandokan (1976).
Indian film actor Kabir Bedi (1946) was one of the first international actors from India. His career has spanned three continents and three media: theatre, television, and film. He started out in Hindi films, worked in Hollywood films and became a star in Europe. In Europe, he is best known for playing the pirate Sandokan in the popular Italian TV mini-series Sandokan (1976) and the villainous Gobinda in the James Bond film Octopussy (1983). In India, he is also noted as the villainous Sanjay Verma in the 1980s blockbuster Khoon Bhari Maang/Blood on the Head (1988) and as Emperor Shah Jahan in Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story (2005).
Kabir Bedi was born in Lahore, Punjab, British India in 1946. He was one of three children of a Sikh family that had devoted itself to India's fight for independence from British colonial rule. His father, Baba Pyare Lal Singh Bedi, a Punjabi Sikh, was an author and philosopher. His mother, Freda Bedi was a British woman born in Derby, England, who became famous as the first Western woman to take ordination in Tibetan Buddhism. His younger sister Gulhima Bedi is now a professor in Nashua, Boston, USA. Kabir attended the Sherwood College, Nainital, Uttarakhand, and graduated from St. Stephen's College, Delhi. He began his career in the Indian theatre and then moved on to Hindi films. As a stage actor, Kabir has performed Shakespeare's 'Othello' as well as portrayed a historical Indian king, Tughlaq; and a self-destructive alcoholic in 'The Vultures'. In London, he also starred in 2005 in 'The Far Pavilions', the West End musical adaptation of M. M. Kaye's novel, at the Shaftesbury Theatre. In 2011 Kabir played Emperor Shah Jahan, in 'Taj', a play written by John Murrell, a Canadian playwright for the Luminato Festival in Toronto. In 2013, this play was recommissioned and went on an 8-week multi-city tour of Canada.
Kabir Bedi has acted in over 60 Indian films. He made his screen debut in the Bollywood comedy-thriller Hulchul (O. P. Ralhan, 1971) with O. P. Ralhan himself playing the lead role. Kadir had his breakthrough with the action film Kacche Dhaage (Raj Khosla, 1973), which became a box office hit. Another blockbuster at the box office was the Bollywood horror fantasy thriller Nagin/Female Serpent (Rajkumar Kohli, 1976) which features a huge ensemble cast including Sunil Dutt, Reena Roy, and Bedi. His other Hindi-language films include the action thrillers Khoon Bhari Maang/Blood on the Head (Rakesh Roshan, 1988), and Main Hoon Na/I am here (Farah Khan, 2004). Internationally, he first worked in Italy where he starred in the adventure films Il corsaro nero/The Black Corsair (Sergio Sollima, 1976) with Carole André and Mel Ferrer, and La tigre è ancora viva: Sandokan alla riscossa!/The tiger is still alive: Sandokan to the rescue! (Sergio Sollima, 1977) with Philippe Leroy and Adolfo Celi. The latter follows on from the television series Sandokan (Sergio Sollima, 1976), inspired by the series of novels by Emilio Salgari featuring the pirate hero Sandokan. Then he starred in the British/French fantasy film The Thief of Baghdad (Clive Donner, 1978) with Roddy MacDowall, and the American-Swiss action-adventure film Ashanti/Ashanti, Land of No Mercy (Richard Fleischer, 1979) starring Michael Caine and Peter Ustinov. His best-known film is the 13th James Bond film Octopussy (John Glen, 1983) starring Roger Moore. Bedi played Gobinda, the bodyguard of the villain Kamal Khan, an exiled Afghan prince (Louis Jourdan). He also played roles in The Beast/The Beast of War (Kevin Reynolds, 1988), an American film on the Russian war in Afghanistan, as well as the acclaimed Italian comedy Andata Ritorno/Roundtrip (Marco Ponti, 2004), which won the David di Donatello Award. In the Bollywood historical epic Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story (Akbar Khan, 2005), Kabir starred as the Emperor Shah Jahan. It was the most expensive Indian film at the time, costing more than ₹500 million ($11.34 million). Kabir Bedi appeared in such popular Bollywood productions as Blue (Anthony D'Souza, 2009) with Akshay Kumar, and Kites (Anurag Basu, 2010) starring Hrithik Roshan and acted in the Tamil film Aravaan/Snake (Vasanthabalan, 2012). In 2017, he acted in the Telugu-language historical epic Gautamiputra Satakarni/Satakarni, son of Gautami (Krish, 2017). It was based on the life of the 2nd century AD Satavahana ruler Gautamiputra Satakarni, played by Nandamuri Balakrishna. The film was Balakrishna's 100th film released on 1320 screens worldwide.
Kabir Bedi has often appeared on television. In Europe, his greatest success was the Mini-series Sandokan (Sergio Sollima, 1976), the saga of a romantic Southeast Asian pirate during British colonial times. It was an Italian-German-French TV series that broke viewership records across Europe and most of the Spanish speaking world. In Italy, Kabir later starred in the prime-time series, Vivere (2006) and Un Medico in Famiglia (2007) in which he plays in Italian. In Hollywood, Kabir starred in The Bold and the Beautiful (1994-2005), the second most-watched television show in the world, seen by over a billion people in 149 countries. Over the years, he also guest-starred in episodes of Dynasty (1982-1986), Knight Rider (1985), Murder, She Wrote (1988), Magnum, P.I. (1988), Highlander: The Series (1995), and Team Knight Rider (1998). Bedi also appeared in such mini-series as On Wings of Eagles (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1988) with Burt Lancaster, Forbidden Territory (Simon Langton, 1997) with Aidan Quinn, and The Monkey King/The Lost Empire (Peter MacDonald, 2003), starring Bai Ling. On Indian TV, Bedi played both the young and aged Abraham in the Hindustani language television series Bible Ki Kahaniya/Stories from the Bible (Raghunath Paleri, Isaac Thomas Kottukapally, T. K. Rajeev Kumar, 1992). He had his own talk show, Director's Cut (Reshma Ghosh, 2008), a 13-part series in which he interviewed the country's leading film directors. His success on television continued with Ganga Kii Dheej (Anil v Kumar, 2010-2011 ). By decree of the President of the Italian Republic, Kabir Bedi was officially knighted in 2010. He was bestowed with the title of 'Cavaliere' (Knight). Bedi married four times and had three children, Pooja, Siddharth (deceased) and Adam. From 1968 till 1973, he was married to Protima Bedi, an Odissi dancer. Their daughter Pooja Bedi is a magazine/newspaper columnist and former actress. Their son, Siddharth, who went to Carnegie Mellon University, was diagnosed with schizophrenia and committed suicide in 1997 at the age of 26. As his marriage with Protima began to break down, Bedi famously started a relationship with Parveen Babi. They were never married. In 1979, he married British-born fashion designer Susan Humphreys. Their son, Adam Bedi, is an international model who made his Hindi film debut with the thriller, Hello? Kaun Hai! This marriage also ended in divorce. In 1993, Bedi married TV and radio presenter Nikki Bedi. They had no children and divorced in 2005. After that, Bedi has been in a relationship with British-born Parveen Dusanj, whom he married in 2016, a day before his 70th birthday. Bedi supports the anti-Government struggle in Myanmar and is an official ambassador of the Burma Campaign UK.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our albums Dutch TV History and Vintage TV Heroes, and our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Kabir Bedi in Sandokan (1976)
Italian postcard by Titanus. Photo: Titanus. Kabir Bedi in Sandokan (Sergio Solima, 1976). Caption: Finally in the cinema on a gigantic screen in colour, Titanus presents Kabir Bedi in Sandokan (1976).
Indian film actor Kabir Bedi (1946) was one of the first international actors from India. His career has spanned three continents and three media: theatre, television, and film. He started out in Hindi films, worked in Hollywood films and became a star in Europe. In Europe, he is best known for playing the pirate Sandokan in the popular Italian TV mini-series Sandokan (1976) and the villainous Gobinda in the James Bond film Octopussy (1983). In India, he is also noted as the villainous Sanjay Verma in the 1980s blockbuster Khoon Bhari Maang/Blood on the Head (1988) and as Emperor Shah Jahan in Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story (2005).
Kabir Bedi was born in Lahore, Punjab, British India in 1946. He was one of three children of a Sikh family that had devoted itself to India's fight for independence from British colonial rule. His father, Baba Pyare Lal Singh Bedi, a Punjabi Sikh, was an author and philosopher. His mother, Freda Bedi was a British woman born in Derby, England, who became famous as the first Western woman to take ordination in Tibetan Buddhism. His younger sister Gulhima Bedi is now a professor in Nashua, Boston, USA. Kabir attended the Sherwood College, Nainital, Uttarakhand, and graduated from St. Stephen's College, Delhi. He began his career in the Indian theatre and then moved on to Hindi films. As a stage actor, Kabir has performed Shakespeare's 'Othello' as well as portrayed a historical Indian king, Tughlaq; and a self-destructive alcoholic in 'The Vultures'. In London, he also starred in 2005 in 'The Far Pavilions', the West End musical adaptation of M. M. Kaye's novel, at the Shaftesbury Theatre. In 2011 Kabir played Emperor Shah Jahan, in 'Taj', a play written by John Murrell, a Canadian playwright for the Luminato Festival in Toronto. In 2013, this play was recommissioned and went on an 8-week multi-city tour of Canada.
Kabir Bedi has acted in over 60 Indian films. He made his screen debut in the Bollywood comedy-thriller Hulchul (O. P. Ralhan, 1971) with O. P. Ralhan himself playing the lead role. Kadir had his breakthrough with the action film Kacche Dhaage (Raj Khosla, 1973), which became a box office hit. Another blockbuster at the box office was the Bollywood horror fantasy thriller Nagin/Female Serpent (Rajkumar Kohli, 1976) which features a huge ensemble cast including Sunil Dutt, Reena Roy, and Bedi. His other Hindi-language films include the action thrillers Khoon Bhari Maang/Blood on the Head (Rakesh Roshan, 1988), and Main Hoon Na/I am here (Farah Khan, 2004). Internationally, he first worked in Italy where he starred in the adventure films Il corsaro nero/The Black Corsair (Sergio Sollima, 1976) with Carole André and Mel Ferrer, and La tigre è ancora viva: Sandokan alla riscossa!/The tiger is still alive: Sandokan to the rescue! (Sergio Sollima, 1977) with Philippe Leroy and Adolfo Celi. The latter follows on from the television series Sandokan (Sergio Sollima, 1976), inspired by the series of novels by Emilio Salgari featuring the pirate hero Sandokan. Then he starred in the British/French fantasy film The Thief of Baghdad (Clive Donner, 1978) with Roddy MacDowall, and the American-Swiss action-adventure film Ashanti/Ashanti, Land of No Mercy (Richard Fleischer, 1979) starring Michael Caine and Peter Ustinov. His best-known film is the 13th James Bond film Octopussy (John Glen, 1983) starring Roger Moore. Bedi played Gobinda, the bodyguard of the villain Kamal Khan, an exiled Afghan prince (Louis Jourdan). He also played roles in The Beast/The Beast of War (Kevin Reynolds, 1988), an American film on the Russian war in Afghanistan, as well as the acclaimed Italian comedy Andata Ritorno/Roundtrip (Marco Ponti, 2004), which won the David di Donatello Award. In the Bollywood historical epic Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story (Akbar Khan, 2005), Kabir starred as the Emperor Shah Jahan. It was the most expensive Indian film at the time, costing more than ₹500 million ($11.34 million). Kabir Bedi appeared in such popular Bollywood productions as Blue (Anthony D'Souza, 2009) with Akshay Kumar, and Kites (Anurag Basu, 2010) starring Hrithik Roshan and acted in the Tamil film Aravaan/Snake (Vasanthabalan, 2012). In 2017, he acted in the Telugu-language historical epic Gautamiputra Satakarni/Satakarni, son of Gautami (Krish, 2017). It was based on the life of the 2nd century AD Satavahana ruler Gautamiputra Satakarni, played by Nandamuri Balakrishna. The film was Balakrishna's 100th film released on 1320 screens worldwide.
Kabir Bedi has often appeared on television. In Europe, his greatest success was the Mini-series Sandokan (Sergio Sollima, 1976), the saga of a romantic Southeast Asian pirate during British colonial times. It was an Italian-German-French TV series that broke viewership records across Europe and most of the Spanish speaking world. In Italy, Kabir later starred in the prime-time series, Vivere (2006) and Un Medico in Famiglia (2007) in which he plays in Italian. In Hollywood, Kabir starred in The Bold and the Beautiful (1994-2005), the second most-watched television show in the world, seen by over a billion people in 149 countries. Over the years, he also guest-starred in episodes of Dynasty (1982-1986), Knight Rider (1985), Murder, She Wrote (1988), Magnum, P.I. (1988), Highlander: The Series (1995), and Team Knight Rider (1998). Bedi also appeared in such mini-series as On Wings of Eagles (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1988) with Burt Lancaster, Forbidden Territory (Simon Langton, 1997) with Aidan Quinn, and The Monkey King/The Lost Empire (Peter MacDonald, 2003), starring Bai Ling. On Indian TV, Bedi played both the young and aged Abraham in the Hindustani language television series Bible Ki Kahaniya/Stories from the Bible (Raghunath Paleri, Isaac Thomas Kottukapally, T. K. Rajeev Kumar, 1992). He had his own talk show, Director's Cut (Reshma Ghosh, 2008), a 13-part series in which he interviewed the country's leading film directors. His success on television continued with Ganga Kii Dheej (Anil v Kumar, 2010-2011 ). By decree of the President of the Italian Republic, Kabir Bedi was officially knighted in 2010. He was bestowed with the title of 'Cavaliere' (Knight). Bedi married four times and had three children, Pooja, Siddharth (deceased) and Adam. From 1968 till 1973, he was married to Protima Bedi, an Odissi dancer. Their daughter Pooja Bedi is a magazine/newspaper columnist and former actress. Their son, Siddharth, who went to Carnegie Mellon University, was diagnosed with schizophrenia and committed suicide in 1997 at the age of 26. As his marriage with Protima began to break down, Bedi famously started a relationship with Parveen Babi. They were never married. In 1979, he married British-born fashion designer Susan Humphreys. Their son, Adam Bedi, is an international model who made his Hindi film debut with the thriller, Hello? Kaun Hai! This marriage also ended in divorce. In 1993, Bedi married TV and radio presenter Nikki Bedi. They had no children and divorced in 2005. After that, Bedi has been in a relationship with British-born Parveen Dusanj, whom he married in 2016, a day before his 70th birthday. Bedi supports the anti-Government struggle in Myanmar and is an official ambassador of the Burma Campaign UK.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our albums Dutch TV History and Vintage TV Heroes, and our blog European Film Star Postcards.