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He won four Asian Games medals, including two golds, at the discus and hammer throw events, and participated in two Olympics. There is little doubt that Praveen Kumar Sobti, who died at 74 this week, was a more talented athlete than an actor. He won four Asian Games medals, including two golds, at the discus and hammer throw events, and participated in two Olympics. In the 1960s and ’70s, though, athletes did not get either the recognition or reward they do now. With his acting career, beginning in the ’80s, Sobti had perfect timing: He played Bheem, the second of the Pandavas, in B R Chopra’s Mahabharat. And as with so many others who were involved with television as the medium spread across India, he became known more as his character than himself.
Like Dara Singh before him — who played Hanuman in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan — Sobti was the ultimate strongman. Well-built and over six-and-a-half feet tall, he was the perfect Bheem — his thick Punjabi accent notwithstanding. For a generation of Indians, whose images of the mythic heroes of the Mahabharata were from oral traditions — stories told by parents and grandparents — the Doordarshan show became the first common, pan-Indian embodiment of arguably India’s greatest story. Sobti played other characters too — notably, Saaboo in Chacha Chaudhary. But for much of the rest of his filmography, he was a “henchman”, someone the hero could beat up to show his prowess.
It is easy to lament how Sobti the athlete was overshadowed by Bheem. Yet, as iconic characters go, it’s hard to do better than he did on the small screen. Today, with multiple channels, reality shows, OTT platforms and the never-ending stream of content, it’s easy to forget that for years, every Sunday, families gathered around to watch Sobti and his colleagues for India’s original soap opera, action flick, religious drama and moral lesson all rolled into one. For those who do remember, Bheem lives on.
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