“Ajit introduced a new kind of villain in Indian cinema, one who is cool, casual, suave, educated, wore suits and white shoes, and speaks with a sugary voice. However, inside, he is an evil mastermind and a heartless person.
Early Life
Ajit was born on 27 January 1922, as Hamid Ali Khan, into a Pashtun family near Hyderabad’s Golconda. His father was a soldier in the army of Nizam Mir Usman. His arthodox father was against his joining films. He sold his college books, paid for the train fare to Mumbai, and started his long struggle in the city of dreams. Without a contact in the industry, he had to sleep on the footpath and in cement pipes used for constructing gutters.
Hamid Ali Khan started his career as an extra. Because of his deep voice and good looks, he got noticed by filmmakers. Mahesh Bhatt’s father, Nanabhai Bhatt started to give him meatier roles. It was also the time when he started using his screen name as “Ajit” in place of Hamid Ali Khan.
Hamid Ali Khan Became Ajit
In 1950, he got his breakout role in K. Amarnath’s Beqasoor, with Madhubala. He did more films as a hero, including Hatimtai (1947), Jeevan Saathi (1949), Janmapatri (1949), Dholak (1951), Nastik (1953), Bada Bhai, Milan (1954), Baradari (1955), Naqab (1955), Halaku (1949), and Insaaf (1956).
Despite being praised for his performances and working with top heroines like Madhubala, Meena Kumari, Geeta Bali, and Nalini Jaywant (15 films), he never entered the big league. This forced him to start doing supporting roles, including two of Hindi cinema’s best-known supporting roles, Naya Daur (1947) and Mughal-e-Azam (1960), both with Dilip Kumar.
The Villain
Ajit’s role as a hero failed to catapult him to success, but he found his true calling years later when he got a break as a villain in Suraj, starring Rajendra Kumar and Vyjayanthimala, directed by T. Prakash Rao. Soon came Zanjeer, in which he played the chilling Don Teja, then Yaadon ki Baraat, for which he became a gangster who wore a size 8 shoe on one foot and a size 9 on another, and the ruthless villain from Kalicharan, “Sara shahr jise Lion ke nam se Janta hai.”
People still remember his one-liners and phrases like the “Mona darling” bit in Yaadon Ki Baraat and “Lily, don’t be silly” in Zanjeer. In the seventies, he had acted in over 57 films, mostly as a villain. His dialogue delivery remains popular even to this date.
His dialogues became so iconic and famous that people started to parody him in advertisements, like Jaaved Jaaferi’s tagline for Maggi, “Baas, pass the saas,” and Parle-G’s campaign that was a nod to Ajit with “Maal laye ho?”
Ajit Khan died on 22 October 1998, survived by his five children, Shahid Ali Khan, Zahid Ali Khan, and Abid Ali Khan, Shezad Khan and Arbaaz Khan, and his wives Shahida Ji and Sarah Ji.”
Ajit on IMDB
