Golden Era of Bollywood: Feroz Khan- A Successful Journey from Third Grade films to Top Banners

Feroz Khan made his debut in Homi Wadia’s low-budget flop, Reporter Raju (1962), With no godfathers to back him, Feroz worked in a bunch of low-brow flicks through the mid-1960s to survive. That included playing second fiddle to Dara Singh in Samson.
In side roles he always managed to hold his own against more famous co-stars: Raj Kumar (Oonche Log, a moderate success), Rajendra Kumar (Arzoo), Rajesh Khanna (Safar), Dharmendra (Aadmi Aur Insaan, for which he got Filmfare’s Best Supporting Actor award) and Sunil Dutt (Pyaasi Shaam).
In his role as the wayward younger brother of Raj Kumar, he was noticed in the black and white film Oonche Log (1965), Feroz Khan comes across as a young, vulnerable and charming youth in Mohammed Rafi numbers “Haye re tere chanchal nainwa , kuchh baat karein ruk jaayein” and “Jaag Dil-e-Deewana, Rut jaagi wasl-e-yaar ki”.

After this film came Arzoo, in which he had a chunky role, one could see Feroz Khan at his romantic and emotional best. He had some beautiful scenes in Kashmir opposite the exceptionally pretty heroine, Sadhana. With this, Khan started to receive A-list second leads. With the film Aadmi Aur Insaan (1969), Khan won his first Filmfare award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
In 1970 released Safar, in this film the Hero was Rajesh Khanna but Feroz Khan played an important role in this film. In 1971 he appeared in 2 films as the 2nd lead to his younger brother Sanjay Khan( Mela and Upasana).

To improve his career opportunities as a leading man he started his own Production Company.He became a successful producer and director with the 1972 film Apradh, Mumtaaz was his co-star in this film. Apradh was the first Indian movie showing auto racing in Germany,it was a moderate success at the box office. After that, he produced, directed and starred in the 1975 film Dharmatma, which was the first Indian film to be shot in Afghanistan and was also his first blockbuster hit as a producer, director and star and marked the appearance of actress Hema Malini in a glamorous avatar. This movie was inspired by the Hollywood film The Godfather.

Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, he was a leading Bollywood star, directing and starring in many of his films. He also starred in the Punjabi film Bhagat Dhanna Jat (1974). The 1980 film Qurbani, with Zeenat Aman, was the biggest hit of his career and launched the singing career of iconic Pakistani pop singer Nazia Hassan, with her memorable track "Aap Jaisa Koi". In 1986, he directed and starred in Janbaaz, a box office hit, In 1988, he directed and starred in Dayavan, which was a remake of an Indian Tamil film titled Nayakan. After directing and starring in Yalgaar (1992),
He launched his son Fardeen Khan's career with the 1998 film Prem Aggan, which, however, was a box office bomb. he took a long break from acting for 11 years.
His last film as an actor was "Welcome" was a roaring hit in 2007. He died from lung cancer on 27 April 2009 at the age of 69. He was buried in Bangalore near to his mother's grave at Hosur Road Shia Kabristan.
He appeared in over 51 films in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and became one of Bollywood's popular style icons