Sholay Actor Birbal Khosla Passes Away At The Age of 84

Veteran actor Birbal Khosla passed away on Tuesday, September 12. He was admitted in a Mumbai hospital where he breathed his last. As reported by India Today, Khosla died due to a cardiac arrest. His final rites will be performed on Wednesday. Khosla was 84.

Birbal Khosla is known for playing the role of the prisoner with a half-cut mustache in the blockbuster movie Sholay. Khosla made his acting debut in the year 1966 with the movie Do Bandhan. However, he rose to fame with the film Boond Jo Ban Gayee Moti. Later, Khosla worked in over 500 movies in multiple languages including Hindi, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, and Marathi. Some of his films include Fir Kabhi, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Sadma, Charlie Chaplin, Anurodh, Tapasya, Amir Garib, Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke, Dil, Gambler and Mr & Mrs Khiladi.

In his career spanning over 50 years. Birbal Khosla worked with several big actors including Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Jeetendra, Mumtaz, Manoj Kumar and Rajesh Khanna. Khosla was last seen in the 2022 movie 10 Nahi 40.

Cine and TV Artistes’ Association paid tribute to Khosla on X (formerly known as Twitter) and expressed its condolences.

Film critic Dilip Thakur also talked about Birbal’s contribution to the industry and told E-Times, “Birbal came at a time when Mehmood was in form. But despite bigwigs like Mehmood, Jagdeep, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra and Rajesh Khanna, Birbal made a special place for himself in the industry with his character roles. During the initial days, he used to work on daily wages and had to do small jobs. But Birbal kept working with dedication and his hard work paid off. He might have known for small roles but he played big and meaningful innings in the industry.”