Shyam (actor)

Sunder Shyam Chadda (born February 1920 in Sialkot - died April 25, 1951) was a Hindi film actor of the 1940s. He originally hailed from Sialkot and his full name was Sunder Shyam Chadha, but he grew up in Rawalpindi.

Shyam graduated from Gordon College in Rawalpindi. He was a close personal friend of Saadat Hasan Manto and was the inspiration of many of his stories. Even after partition their bond of friendship endured. One of his famous movies was Bazaar, released in 1949 where he starred with Nigar Sultana. He married a Muslim, Taji Mumtaz Qureshi with whom he had a daughter , Pakistani TV actress Sahira Kazmi, married to actor Rahat Kazmi, and a son named Shakir, a psychiatrist based in UK.

Shyam acted in many memorable: Mann kee jeet (1944), Majboor (1948), Dillagi (1949), Patanga (1949), Chandni Raat (1949), Meena Bazaar (1950) and Samadhi (1950).Shyam died on the set of the film Shabistan in 1951 after he fell off a horse. The film was completed with a stand-in and body double in his place.