Lehri (actor)

Safirullah Siddiqui, commonly known as Lehri (2 January 1929 – 13 September 2012) was a leading comedian and actor in Urdu film industry of Pakistan. He won 11 Nigar Awards which is consider as most prestigious award in Lollywood and Pakistani film industry

Early life

Safirullah was born on 2 January 1929 in Kanpur, British India. After independence, he along with his family migrated to Pakistan and settled in Karachi. He performed on radio and stage before setting foot in the film industry.

Works

Lehri acted from the late 1950s until the 1980s. He won Nigar Award 11 times for various films between 1964 and 1986, his first film, Anokhi, was released in 1956, and his last production was "Dhanak" in 1986. The vast majority of his films have been in Urdu, though he did perform in a few Punjabi productions.

Lehri’s forte was the quip and in his monotone, his audience became used to finding a brand of quiet, almost surreptitious humour. To critics and to his fans, his restrained style came to personify the ‘decency’ of times gone by. After mid-80s, Lehri was reduced to occasional appearances on television and newspaper columns. By the time private-sector television arrived, though, the film industry was struggling and all that it had once encompassed was looked upon both with a sense of loss and with fondness.