Jagdeep established himself in the era when Johnny Walker and Mehmood were very much in the industry
Shivani Agarwal
Birth Anniversary: Comedian Jagdeep’s second birth anniversary is today i.e. March 29. Jagdeep passed away on 8 July 2020. His passing marked the end of an era of comedy in Bollywood that was lived by artists like Mehmood, Johnny Walker, Keshto Mukherjee. Jagdeep has been the best comedian of his time. He made an identity by becoming Soorma Bhopali. Simultaneously, the dialect of Bhopal city was also made famous. Please tell that Jagdeep’s full name is Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed Jafri, the film industry first named him Jagdeep and the 1988 film “Sholay” made him Soorma.
Jagdeep was born in Datia, MP
Jagdeep’s real name was Syed Ishtiaq Jafri, born on 29 March 1939 in Datia, then Central Provinces (Madhya Pradesh). His father was a barrister. The country was partitioned in 1947 and his father passed away in the same year. His family started eating stumbling blocks from door to door. Mother came to Mumbai with Jagdeep and other children and started cooking food in an orphanage to run the house. Jagdeep used to cry seeing this condition of his mother. To help his mother, he left school and started selling soap-combs and kites on the road.
Career started as a child artist
Jagdeep did his B.A. in the year 1951. R. Chopra’s film ‘Afsana’ as a child artist ‘Master Munna’. He worked in this film only because he could earn only one and a half rupees in a day by selling combs, whereas on the set of Afsana he was getting only 3 rupees for clapping. He worked in many films as a child artist, but Bimal Roy’s ‘Do Bigha Zamin’ got him recognition.
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru gave his personal staff as a gift
Jagdeep established himself in the era when Johnny Walker and Mehmood were very much in the industry. The work of 18-year-old Jagdeep in director PL Santoshi’s film Hum Panchhi Ek Dal, made under the banner of AVM Production, released in the year 1957, was highly appreciated. Seeing his acting in the film, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, was so happy that he had gifted his personal staff for Jagdeep for a few days. Jagdeep has also been honored with ‘Life Time Achievement Award’.
When real Soorma Bhopali came to fight Jagdeep
The character of ‘Soorma Bhopali’ was based on Nahar Singh, the Forest Officer of Bhopal. Javed Akhtar, who lived in Bhopal for a long time, had listened to the stories of Nahar Singh. So when he started writing the film ‘Sholay’ with Salim, he created ‘Soorma Bhopali’, a character similar to Nahar Singh, to add a touch of comedy.
The film was released and ‘Soorma Bhopali’ became famous, but here, Nahar Singh became very funny in Bhopal. Nahar Singh got angry with Salim-Javed. One, he made fun of him in the film, made the forest officer a lumberjack from above. In such a situation, Nahar Singh directly reached Mumbai and stood in front of Jagdeep in a fighting posture. Jagdeep understood the matter after a long time, but he was afraid how to explain to Nahar Singh, but later Johnny Walker helped him and after explaining Nahar Singh sent him back to Bhopal.
33 years younger girl got married for the third time
Jagdeep got embroiled in controversies regarding his third marriage. Actually, the matter is that the girl’s people had come to see Jagdeep’s second son Naved, but Naved refused to marry. Actually, Naved was busy making his career at that time. Meanwhile, Jagdeep’s heart fell on the sister of the girl whom Naved was about to marry. He proposed her with his hands and she agreed.
His third wife Najima is 33 years younger than Jagdeep in age. Najima and Jagdeep’s daughter’s name is Muskan who is just 6 months younger than her cousin brother Javed’s son Meezaan. Both his sons Javed Jaffrey and Naved Jaffrey are also well-known names in the film industry.
