Nadeem (Nazeer Baig Mughal) - - A Living Legend; Who Made History in Pakistani Cinema

Nadeem (Urdu: ندیم) was born in 1941 and his real name is Nazeer Baig Mughal. He is a well-known Pakistani film star, who has performed in a number of telefilms and TV drama serials and hosted a prize-winning quiz show on ARY Digital 9a private TV channel in Pakistan). He has performed top roles in more than 200 films and undoubtedly considered as a legend in Pakistan film industry. Along with Waheed Murad and Mohammad Ali, he has ruled Pakistani cinema over the years, especially films in Urdu language.

Early Life



Nadeem (Nazeer Baig Mughal) was born in Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh, which was included in British India. At the time of Indo-Pak partition, he was only 5 years of age. He migrated with his father Mirza Abbas Baig from Hyderabad Deccan to Karachi. After his initial education he graduated from Islamia College, Karachi. At that time the Islamia Club was ranked as the centre of great film and radio artists. A lot of musical competitions were arranged to discover the aptitude and talent of college students. Nadeem as well as many great artists like Talat Hussein, M. Zaheer Khan, TV producer Iqbal Haider, Aftab Azeem and Saleem Jafri were the product of that Club. Together with his friends like Ameer Ahmed Khan and Qasim Siddiqui and he won several music competitions. He was picked by then famous singer Firdousi Begum at one of those musical competitions. She was stunned by his singing talent and advised him to try his luck in playback singing in Dhaka's film industry. With such a brilliant singing talent, he also got a chance to sing a song for an Urdu film Sehra, the music of which was composed by Nisar Bazmi, but unluckily the film could never been released.



In the mean time he got a chance to travel to Dhaka in a cultural trip arranged by Islamia Club. There he was given an opportunity to sing a song in Captain Ehtisham's new film Chakori. Captain was producing a low budget black and white film as his previous colour film Sagar was flopped. At the time of casting, he chose Shabana as heroine and East Pakistani (Bengali) film actor Azeem as hero. But Azeem rejected the offer because of a very low amount was offered. So Ehtisham decided to cast Nadeem, against the will of his brother Mustafeez, in his film as hero. The film was released on May 19, 1967, in both East and West Pakistan. The film proved to be such a blockbuster that it made Nadeem a superstar overnight, and it also became the second 'Platinum Jubilee' film of Pakistan. The Presidential Award for Pride of Performance was awarded to Nadeem in 1991.

With his successful start of the film career Nadeem had to travel thoroughly for Karachi, Lahore and Dhaka to act in movies. In 1971, after the fall of Dhaka and formation of the Independent state of Bangladesh, he settled in Lahore which became his home. In early 2000’s he shifted again from Lahore to Karachi.

Nadeem's Film Career

The tenure of his film career is spread over 42 years. In the presence of top class artists like Santosh Kumar, Muhammad Ali, Waheed Murad, Habib and Kamal; he not only won Best Actor’s Nigar Award in his first film Chakori, but with successive super hit movies, namely Chotey Sahib and Sangdil, he made a record of success.

Even today, in 2010, Nadeem is considered to be the No.1 actor of the Pakistani silver screen. In the 61 years long history of Pakistani film industry, only 25 films have the distinction of celebrating Diamond Jubilee (completing a run of 100 or more weeks). Nadeem alone figures in 10 out of these 25 movies. His Diamond Jubilee films include:

• Nadan (1973),
• Anari, Pechan (1975),
• Talashi (1976),
• Aina (1977),
• Hum Donon (1980),
• Lajawab, Qurbani (1981),
• Sangdil (1982) and
• Dehleez (1983)



One of Nadeem's films, Aina, is the most successful movie ever made in Pakistan. A big hit all over the country, it was shown continuously for more than five years in Karachi completing more than 400 weeks. It also won 12 Nigar Awards which remains the highest number of awards won by a single Urdu movie, so it may be termed as a record breaking and trend setting movie in many aspects.



An Indian film, Noor Jahan, was released in Pakistani cinemas in 1980, with a special permission. It was taken as a challenge for Pakistan Film Industry. Parvez Malik, a well-reputed and talented director, accepted the challenge and produced “Hum Dono”, presenting Nadeem in double role. “Hum Dono” proved a blockbuster which ran for 165 weeks in Karachi, becoming the second most exhibited movie after “Aina”. Meanwhile Nadeem’s two more films Bandish and Saima also got released and tasted great success in a neck to neck fight with Noor Jahan. Bandish was run for 86 and 82 weeks in Lahore and Karachi respectively. Earlier in 1971, Nadeem became the first actor to play three different characters in his film “Jaltey Suraj Key Nichey” (under the burning sun).



Urdu movies witnessed a great recession in 1990s when films in the national language Urdu had almost been discarded. In this situation; Nadeem’s film “Insaniyat Ke Dushman”, entirely in Urdu, got an unparalleled success which once again motivated film producers towards the production of Urdu movies.

Being a wonderful and talented singer Nadeem has also many hit songs to his credit as a play back singer. In fact Nadeem, basically groomed as a singer, is the first actor in Pakistan who sang for movies as playback singer. Almost all of his two dozen songs have been popular. In 1967 his duet with Firdousi Begum “Kahan ho tum ko dhoond rahi hain yeh baharain yeh saman” was a super hit street song, and then after mote than 20 years in 1989, his duet with the melody queen Noor Jahan “Mundia dupatta chad mera” was a phenomenal hit.

In the years 2001 and 2002, Urdu films undergone for a lack of purposeful stories. Such scenario forced Nadeem to step down in terms of acting in movies and ultimately he decided to return to Karachi, his native town, saying goodbye to the film industry. TV producers, however, get benefited as they wasted no time in casting Nadeem in their Drama Serials. Nadeem, therefore, appeared in eight TV Serials, namely Bisaat, Chaltey Chaltey, Chehrey, Muhabbat Ka Ek Peher, Ambulance, Ek Safar Tanha He, Jaisey Jaante Nahin and Malika (2005). He also acted in six long and short plays, namely Haar Jeet, Rakh Mein Chingari, Fursat, Laws in Law, Wujood and Musafir Khaana (2005). He was co-producer in Bisaaat and Teri Yaad Aagai, a musical program in which Nadeem rendered his favourite songs. All these productions got popularity and appreciation from the viewers.