Balraj Sahni

[7] After completing his master's degree in English Literature from Lahore, he went back to Rawalpindi and joined his family business.

In the late 1930s, Sahni and his wife left Rawalpindi to join Tagore's Visva-Bharati University in Shantiniketan in Bengal as an English and Hindi teacher.

The next year, Sahni, with Gandhi's blessings, went to England to join the BBC-London's Hindi service as a radio announcer.

However, he is perhaps best remembered by the current generation for his picturisation of the legendary song "Ae Meri Zohra Jabeen" from the movie Waqt (1965).

He also starred in the classic Punjabi film Nanak Dukhiya Sub Sansar (1970) as well as the critically acclaimed Satluj De Kande.

His role as the angst-ridden, but stoic Muslim man who refuses to go to Pakistan during partition, in his last film Garam Hawa, has often been called his best performance by critics.

Balraj, however, could not see the completed film to rate his own performance, as he died the day after he finished dubbing work.

He contributed many poems and short stories in magazines and also penned his autobiography; Meri Filmi Aatmakatha.

Their wholehearted efforts were visible as more than 250 delegates and observers representing several youth organisations of various states of India attended this session.

Sahni also dabbled in screenwriting; he wrote the 1951 film Baazi which starred Dev Anand and was directed by Guru Dutt.