Actor Javed Khan Amrohi of Lagaan, Chak De! fame passes away

Veteran actor Javed Khan Amrohi, who played the person letting out the ram-leela maidan to the Indian women’s national hockey team in the Shah rukh Khan starrer ‘Chak De! India’, passed away due to lungs failure in Mumbai on Tuesday, 14 February. 

The actor, whose Sukhlalji character’s, ‘Harna nahin hain, harna nahin’ dialogue in the movie ‘Chak De! India’ surely triggered goosebumps every time one watched the scene, passed away due to lung failure. 

Amrohi was in his early 70s at the time of his death. 

Filmmaker Ramesh Talwar broke the news of his death to news agency PTI, and also informed that the veteran actor had been suffering from a breathing ailment and was bedridden for the past one year.

He was undergoing treatment at Surya Nursing Home in suburban Mumbai, Talwar told PTI.

“He passed away at the hospital around 1 pm as both his lungs failed,” he added.

Actor Akhilendra Mishra, Amrohi’s frequent collaborator from his theatre days and co-star of “Lagaan”, said he was ailing for a long time.

“He was my senior in theatre. He was an active member of IPTA (Indian People’s Theatre Association) Mumbai since the 1970s,” Mishra told PTI.

Having started his career with theatre after graduating from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Amrohi appeared in smaller yet pivotal roles in over 150 films and close to a dozen TV shows

He is best known for playing the barber Karim in the late 1980s TV show “Nukkad”; Anand Akela, one of the suitors of Raveena Tandon’s character in “Andaz Apna Apna”; the cricket commentator in “Lagaan”, and a support staff of the Indian Women’s Hockey team in “Chak De! India”.

Stage and film actor Danish Husain took to Twitter to pay condolences.

“Gutted to hear about #JavedKhanAmrohi Bhai’s demise. This seems to be a season of farewell. Condolences to his family, friends, colleagues @iptamumbai #Nukkadd #Lagaan, and so on and so forth,” Husain wrote.

Amrohi’s other notable titles are ’90s hit films such as “Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke”, “Laadla”, “Ishq”, and the 1988 TV series “Mirza Ghalib”. His last reported film credit was “Sadak 2” (2020), in which he reprised his role of Pakya from the 1991 original “Sadak”.about:blank

The actor is survived by a son and a daughter.