100 Years Of Prem Nath: Remembering The Inimitable Actor Who Gave Life To Films Like Feroz Khan's Dharmatma & Dev Anand's Johny Mera Naam

Today marks the 100 birthday of legendary actor Premnath Malhotra, popularly known as Prem Nath, who passed away in 1992. Nath was part of more than 100 films, and was known for his character roles. During the filming of Aurat.

During the filming of Aurat (1953), he fell in love with actress Bina Rai. They had two children, actors Prem Krishen and Kailash Nath. Some of the blockbuster films he was known for were Teesri Manzil (1966), Johny Mera Naam (1970), Bobby (1973), Roti Kapda Aur Makaan (1974), Dharmatma (1975) and Kalicharan (1976). He was also part of the Punjabi film Sat Sri Akal (1977).

His grandson, director Siddharth P. Malhotra, who has directed Rani Mukherjee’s Hichki (2018), Junaid Khan’s debut Maharaj (2024), and is currently working on Meena Kumari’s biopic, had spoken to us about him when Siddharth had visited our office to shoot for The Celebpreneurs Podcast. “At one point of time, for around 10 years, he went into spirituality. He went to Kedarnath and other places. My grandmother was, in a way, supporting him at that point of time, and she was taking care of the two kids. Then when he came back, he came back as a character actor – with Johnny Mera Naam. At that time, he was the most highly paid character actor,” he had said.

“I was only 13 when he died, but his memories are still fresh in my mind. But there are so many questions I would have wanted to ask a legend like him because he was very learned. He knew 108 raags, he would play music, could speak politics – my grandfather was a very well-read and learned man. So if he was alive, the amount of conversations I would have had today about everything would have been invaluable. But I have learned so much through people about him – you know, about his greatness, about his wildness, about his craziness, and about his spirituality. He even swam the Mansarovar once!” Siddharth told us.