What is "moolchand"

Moolchand was a prolific character actor in Hindi and Panjabi cinema who was active from 1950 to his death in the late-1980s. He appeared in over 250 films. These films spanned the parallel cinema of Guru Dutt to the wrestler films of Dara Singh. He is known for his big stomach.

The first known appearance of Moolchand is in 1950. He was often featured in the films of the directors Guru Dutt and Raj Kapoor working on 6 of the former and 8 of the latter. Other actors he was often seen with were Dev Anand, B. R. Chopra, Dara Singh and I. S. Johar who featured him in most of their movies.

Most of Moolchand's early roles were small ones. He only began to get significant roles in the 1960s. Padosan (1968) where he plays the servant of Om Prakash's character featured a lot of close-ups of Moolchand and showed him to be an able comedic side actor. This comedic side would be further explored in the 1970s with a scene stealing appearance in Yaadon Ki Baarat with fellow fatman Ram Avtar as a tortured businessman and in Don as the village medicine man who dances with Amitabh and beckons Zeenat Aman to participate.

Little is known about Moolchand outside of his film work. The 1988 release Tamacha credits him as 'Late Moolchand'.