Manoj Kumar was the most longed filmstar of the Indian cinema during his times and he was born on 24th July, 1937 in Abbotabad of British India. Harikrishban Goswami was his earlier name. He got his name changed as he got Inspired by the changed name of Dilip Kumar. He belonged to a Punjabi Hindu family which got migrated to Delhi during partition when he was 10 years old.
After moving to Delhi he completed his graduation in Arts in Hindu College. After completing his graduation he started his career in the year 1957 when he was 20 years old with a small role in the film Fashion.
Manoj Kumar:
As per the information available, when he was a student he liked to watch the films in which his favourite actors were casted. His parents H.L Goswami and Krishna Kumari Goswami noted his interest, talents in the film field and they gave complete cooperation to pursue his career in this field.
Hence alongwith his parents motivation Ashok Kumar who was the early hero of those times and alongwith him the acting style of Dilip Kumar and Kamini Kaushal motivated Manoj Kumar to become an actor. The box office hit film Kangan of Ashok Kumar was the first film which impressed him most and after watching this film thenceforth he was a great fan of Ashok Kumar and later he developed an interest towards acting.
After watching Dilip's Shabnam, he changed his original name Harikrishan Giri Goswami to Manoj Kumar. In the film Dilip's character name was Manoj Kumar.
In the above pic Manoj Kumar is receiving The Black Lady Film Fare Award from Mumtaz in 15th Film Fare Award in the year 1968.
Manoj Kumar was a talented person and had expertise in acting, directing, screenwriting, he was also a lyricist and editor who worked prominently exclusively in Hindi cinema for more than four decades and has entertained the audience with the valuable messages which also helped the public to mould their attitude into positive direction. His net worth was about 127 crore and he was quite wealthy person as he was a talented person in various aspects of film making..
Even the political leader like Lal Bahadur Shastri had asked him to make a film. He is also a recipient of the most prestigious awards like Dada Sab Phalke Award and also Padmashri. He passed away recently on 24th April 2025 at the age of 88 years.