He acted opposite several of the top actresses of the time such as Nargis, Suraiya, Nigar Sultana and Nalini Jaywant.
9 (1943), Aaj Aur Kal (1944), W. Z. Ahmed's Man Ki Jeet (1944), Majboor (1948), Chandni Raat (1948), Char Din (1949), Dillagi (1949), Patanga (1949), Naach (1949), Kaneez (1949), Bazar (1949), Meena Bazaar (1950) and Samadhi (1950).
After Shyam's sudden death in 1951 in a horse-riding accident, Mumtaz migrated to Pakistan with her elder sister, Zeb Qureshi, who was her closest surviving relative, and they settled in Lahore.
Shyam's daughter Sahira followed in her late father's footsteps and became an actress, working in Pakistani TV serials.
She is married since 1974 to the Pakistani TV actor Rahat Kazmi and they are the parents of two children, Ali (son) and Nida (daughter).
[1][9][2][4] Some people still speculate to this day that had he lived longer, due to his good looks, he would have given stiff competition to the 1950s popular film heroes, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor.
Manto found Shyam to be fun-loving, liberal in his thinking and a man with a wandering eye for good looking women.
[4][1] Tahir Raj Bhasin portrayed Shyam in the Hindi film by Nandita Das, Manto (2018), a biopic on the noted writer.