It was 1913 when the then Bombay, now Mumbai started making feature films. Prior to it some silent films were made in the then Calcutta,now Kolkata. Film production had started in Lahore too in more or less the same time .
The first film star belonging to KPK who made his mark in Bollywood and before it in Calcutta was none other than Gul Hameed who belonged to village Pirpiai Nowshera KPK. He was undoubtedly a very handsome lad. His father wanted him to join police force but nature had destined his career in film industry. He was spotted in Lahore by the noted film producer A R Kardar while he was performing duty as police officer. He was impressed by demeanour and he offered him a role in his under production film in Bollywood which he accepted. In those days silent movies used to be made. Gul Haneed made a mark in the films he worked in and then he never looked back. He fell in love with one actress named Patience Cooper whom he secretly married with but this fact came to light after his death when his mother found in his bag a letter written by Patience Cooper. Gul Hameed died young after he contracted Hodgkin’s disease
He was born in 1905 and he died in 1936 long before when other film stars belonging to KPK made their debut in Bollywood. Gul Hameed lies burried in a cemetry on the road in Nizam pur Nowshera. Had he lived he would have gone places.
The Kapoor family whose head was Prithvi Raaj and which included Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor also belonged to KPK. Rajkapoor was born and bred in Peshawar city. His ancestral house was at a stone’ s throw from the house where Dilip Kumar was born. Prem Nath was born in Karim Pura Peshawar city while Vinod Khanna in Peshawar cantonment. Vinod was closely related to minister named Mehr Chand Khanna a member of Indian Congress party who had worked as finance minister in the then Congress ministry in the then NWFP. Noted character actors Jaint and his son Amjad Khan were also born in Peshawar city. Shah Rukh was born in Bombay where his father Taj Mohammad had migrated before partition. Taj Mohammad was born in Peshawar city.
Bollywood ‘ s hero Manoj Kumar who died recently was born in Abbotabad. Noted film poet Saghar Sarhadi was born in Batal Hazara. Zia Sarhadi who had shot into prominence by directing Humlog in 1950s also belonged to Peshawar city. In those days creation of a film Humlog which propagated socialistic ideas was considered as a very bold step was father of famous TV star late Khayyam Sarhadi.
