The shooting of Ranbir Kapoor’s ‘Ramayana’ has started. A few days ago, pictures from the set were also leaked. Ranbir has played Ram in the film and Sai Pallavi has played Sita. There is a possibility of Yash becoming Ravana. It was being said that Bobby Deol would play Kumbhakarna. But perhaps he has refused this role.
There are reports of Sunny Deol becoming Hanuman. There is also a possibility that Nitesh Tiwari wants to make a separate spinoff on Hanuman. But this is still speculation. Whether Sunny Deol will become Hanuman or not will be known later but let us tell you who has played the role of Hanuman before him and when.
1. Dara Singh
The first face that comes to mind in the role of Hanuman is Dara Singh. For the first time in 1976, he became Hanuman in director Chandrakant’s film ‘Bajrangbali’. After this, Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana immortalized him. The whole country started knowing him by the name of Hanuman. After the ‘Ramayana’ serial, he became Hanuman many times and continued to do so till the last moment.
2. Pal Sharma
Pal Sharma can be called the first Hanuman of the Indian film industry. It is believed that he became Hanuman for the first time on screen. Pal Sharma played the role of Bajrangbali in Babubhai Mistry’s film ‘Sampoorna Ramayana’ released in 1961.
3. Hercules
Twenty years after ‘Sampoorna Ramayana’ i.e. in 1981, Babubhai Mistry made another film. The name of this film was Mahabali Hanuman. In this, an actor named Hercules played the role of Hanuman.
4. Manoj Kumar
Till now the character of Hanuman has not been played by any main stream actor or star. Manoj Kumar is the only star to do this. Although he did not have any full blown role. He was seen in the role of Hanuman for a short while only. This is from 1987. The film was ‘Kalyug and Ramayana’. This too was made by Babubhai Mistry.
5. Vindu Dara Singh
Dara Singh became most famous in the role of Hanuman. No one got that kind of popularity. His son Vindu Dara Singh also followed him and played the role of Hanuman. But it is not a common thing to shorten the line drawn by Dara Singh. Vindu played the character of Bajrangbali in a TV serial ‘Jai Veer Hanuman’ which came on Sony in 1995.
6. Lover of secrets
Towards the end of the twentieth century, a serial became very popular. Its name was ‘Jai Hanuman’. The public also started considering the royal lover who worked in it as Hanuman. He got a lot of fame. But as soon as the serial ended, his fame also went away.
7. Danish Akhtar Saifi
The character played by Danish Akhtar Saifi portrayed the picture of modern Hanuman, i.e. bodybuilder Hanuman. Danish played the role of Hanuman in the serial ‘Siya Ke Ram’ telecast on StarPlus during 2015-16. This serial was also very much liked and so was its character of Hanuman.
8. Nirbhay Wadhwa
Along with Siya Ke Ram, a serial focusing on the character of Hanuman was running on Sony TV. Its name was ‘Sankatmochan Hanuman’. This also got a lot of popularity. In this, Nirbhay Wadhwa played the character of Anjani Sut.
9. Devdutt Nage
Recently, only Devdutt Nage has played Hanuman. He played this character in ‘Adipurush’ which was in discussion for more bad things than good. His dialogues in the film were heavily criticized.
Apart from all this, many child artists also played the role of Hanuman. We are not including their names in this list. We will talk about them some other day.
