Jairaj is the only actor who began his career with leading roles in the silent era, and gained popularity with talkies. As such, there could be no more deserving candidate for the Dadasaheb Phalke award which was duly bestowed upon him in 1980 for the year 1979.

Jairaj was born at Karimnagar, in Andhra Pradesh, when part of Nizam's Hyderabad Dominion, on 28th September, 1909. His parents had marked him out to become a doctor, but after completing his education, at the age of 19, he shunned their advice and landed in Bombay in 1938. He worked as production manager and also as an assistant cameraman, before he turned to acting with the film Sparkling Youth, in 1929. The Hindi title of this movie was Jagmagti Jawani. However, his second film Raseeli Rani saw the light of day first.

The talkies had arrived in 1931, and his first talkie was Shikar, a 1932 production, thereafter he joined the Sharda Film Co. where he appeared in the very successful film, Mahasagar No Moti, opposite Zebunissa. Jairaj was now being ranked to be on par with top heroes like Prithviraj Kapoor, Master Vitthal, D. Billimoria and Jal Merchant. He was to soon prove his mettle with historical subjects, and among the characters that Jairaj played were, Tipu Sultan, Prithviraj Chauhan, Rana Hamir and Chandrashekhar Azad.

When Ashok Kumar left Bombay Talkies in 1942, Devika Rani, then the producer, assigned the lead role in Hamari Baat to Jairaj, this incidentally, Devika Rani's last film. Jairaj had acted in over 200 films, opposite most of the glamorous leading ladies of his day. His last film as hero was Khooni Kaun in 1965, after which he switched over to character roles.

Jairaj produced and directed Sagar, starring Nargis, Bharat Bhushan and Durga Khote in which he also appeared, and then directed Mohar in 1959. Jairaj has acted in three International films, the Russian production Pardesi, MGM's Maya, and 20th Century Fox's Nine Hours to Rama. The last named film was banned in India, being based on Gandhiji's assassination. Jairaj has played in Gujarati and Marathi films, but surprisingly, not in any film in his mother tongue.

Jairaj's Filmography