The original muscle man of Bollywood - Dara Singh

Standing tall with rippling muscles, wrestler-actor Dara Singh was a name to reckon with in the world of wrestling who ventured into an unusual territory - films.

The 83-year-old will always be remembered for his variety of roles in cinema and on the small screen, the most memorable being that of Hanuman in the iconic show 'Ramayan'.

Apart from making a name for himself in professional wrestling, Singh also acted in a number of Punjabi and Hindi films.

Born in a Jat Sikh family to Balwant Kaur and Surat Singh Randhawa in November 1928 in the village Dharmuchak of Amritsar district in Punjab, Singh was trained in an Indian style of wrestling, Pehlwani. Apart from wrestling in tournaments, he wrestled on invitation of kings of Indian princely states in fairs and carnivals.

In the world of wrestling, he competed against some of the greatest names like King Kong (Australia), George Gordienko (Canada), John Desilva (New Zealand) and others. Singh won the title of 'Rustam-E-Punjab' and 'Rustam-e-Hind' for his wrestling prowess.

Also, he became the Commonwealth Champion in 1959 and in 1996 he was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame.

Singh included over 500 professional fights to his credit, all undefeated. After his retirement from wrestling in 1983, the Commonwealth wrestling champion then turned towards showbiz in 1952 with "Sangdil".