Raj Babbar
Raj Babbar in 2012
Member of Parliament,Rajya Sabha
In office 14 March 2015 – 25 November 2020
Preceded by	Manorama Dobriyal Sharma
Succeeded by	Naresh Bansal
Constituency	Uttarakhand
President ofUttar Pradesh Congress Committee
In office 12 July 2016 – 7 October 2019
Preceded by	Nirmal Khatri
Succeeded by	Ajay Kumar Lallu
Member of Parliament,Lok Sabha
In office November 2009 – 16 May 2014
Preceded by	Ram Ji Lal Suman
Succeeded by	Akshay Yadav
Constituency	Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh
Member of Parliament,Lok Sabha
In office 6 October 1999 – 16 May 2009
Preceded by	Bhagwan Shankar Rawat
Succeeded by	Ram Shankar Katheria
Constituency	Agra, Uttar Pradesh
Member of Parliament,Rajya Sabha
In office 3 April 1994 – 6 October 1999
Constituency	Uttar Pradesh
Personal details
Born	(1952-06-23)23 June 1952 (age 73) Tundla,Uttar Pradesh, India
Political party	Indian National Congress
Other political affiliations	Samajwadi Party Janata Dal
Spouse(s)	Nadira Babbar ​ (m. 1975)​ Smita Patil ​ ​ (m. 1983; died 1986)​
Children	Arya Babbar (son) Juhi Babbar (daughter) Prateik Smita Patil (son)
Relatives	SeeBabbar family
Alma mater	National School of Drama Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar University
Profession	Actor politician
Years active	1975–present
Signature

Raj Babbar (born 23 June 1952) is an IndianHindi andPunjabi film actor and politician belonging toIndian National Congress. He is a three-time member of theLok Sabha and a two-time member of theRajya Sabha. He was the state President ofUttar Pradesh Congress Committee.^[1]

Babbar was born inTundla,Uttar Pradesh, into aPunjabi Hindu aSunar family on 23 June 1952.^[2] His family had settled inTundla after thepartition of India.^[3] Their ancestral roots lie inJalalpur Jattan, a city now located in theGujrat District ofPunjab in modern-dayPakistan.^[4]

He did his initial schooling from Mufid-E-Aam Inter college,Agra. He is analumnus of the 1975 class of theNational School of Drama (NSD) and graduate fromAgra College.^[5][6]

He trained in themethod school of acting at the NSD, which also involved street theatre. After training in New Delhi, he moved to Bombay and started his film career withReena Roy, one of the most well-known actresses of the 1970s. He gained notoriety for his horrific portrayal of a rapist inB. R. Chopra'sInsaf Ka Tarazu, in which he assaulted the heroine Bharti Saxena, played byZeenat Aman and her sister Neeta, played byPadmini Kolhapure and in the end, is shot and killed by Bharti. He then became a consistent feature of the B. R. Chopra banner and appeared inNikaah withDeepak Parashar andSalma Agha and inAaj Ki Aawaz withSmita Patil.

He also achieved success in Punjabi cinema as he gave remarkable performances inChann Pardesi (1980),Marhi Da Deeva (1989), andLong Da Lishkara (1983) – three arthouse films with serious themes treated realistically, and this was an innovation for the Punjabi film field. He also appeared in the Punjabi hit filmsAasra Pyar Da (1983),Mahaul Theek Hai (1999),Shaheed Uddham Singh (1999),Yaaran Naal Baharan (2005),Ek Jind Ek Jaan (2006),Apni Boli Apna Des (2009) andTera Mera Ki Rishta (2009). He appeared in several films as a villain in movies likeInsaf Ka Tarazu (1980),Saazish (1988),Aankhen (1993),Dalaal (1993),The Gambler (1995),Andaz (1994),Yaarana (1995),Barsaat (1995),Ziddi (1997),Gundagardi (1997),Daag: The Fire (1999),Indian (2001) and many more, some films became successful, but some were commercial flops.

He has also appeared on television. He appeared in the introductory episodes of the famous Indian TV seriesMahabharat, as King Bharat,Bahadur Shah Zafar (1986) as Akbar, alongside debutantJuhi Chawla, and also in his home production;Maharaja Ranjit Singh (2010), all telecast onDoordarshan. In 2014 and 2015, he appeared in the serial telecast on Life OK;Pukaar - Call For The Hero, directed byVipul Amrutlal Shah, withRannvijay Singh,Adah Sharma and Shubhangi Latkar.

Raj Babbar entered politics by joiningJanata Dal in 1989, which was led byV. P. Singh.

From 1994 to 1999 he was a member of theRajya Sabha. He was re-elected in the 14th Lok Sabha elections for his second term in 2004. He was suspended fromSamajwadi Party in 2006. Later he joinedIndian National Congress in 2008 and was elected for his fourth term as Member of Parliament in 2009, by defeatingDimple Yadav, wife ofAkhilesh Yadav and daughter-in-law ofMulayam Singh Yadav.^[7] In the 2014Lok Sabha elections, he contested fromGhaziabad and lost to General V. K. Singh.^[8] He was appointed as the president of Uttar Pradesh congress committee (UPCC), but in 2019 elections he couldn't even manage to save his own seat and lost to Rajkumar Chahar of the Bharatiya Janata Party by a huge margin of 4,95,065 votes.

Raj Babbar, in the capacity of Congress spokesman, created controversy in 2013, by stating that Rs.12 is sufficient for a common man to get a full meal in Mumbai, which drew severe criticism.^[9] He also said that a poor person in India can get full meals two times a day, within Rs. 28 to 32 and opposition parties termed Raj Babbar's statement laughable.^[9] Later, he regretted his comments.^[10] In July 2013, he comparedNarendra Modi toAdolf Hitler, which also created controversy.^[11]

In the2024 Indian general election, Raj Babbar contested from theGurgaon Lok Sabha constituency onIndian National Congress ticket. In a tight contest,Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate and Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh registered his fourth straight win from the Gurgaon Lok Sabha constituency, defeating Raj Babbar by 75,079 votes.^[12][13]

He is married toNadira Zaheer, daughter of noted progressive Urdu writerSajjad Zaheer. The couple have two children together; a son namedArya Babbar and a daughter namedJuhi Babbar. He was also married to actressSmita Patil from 1983 to her death in 1986, with whom he has a son namedPrateik Babbar.

He has two younger brothers, Kishan and Vinod (deceased) and four younger sisters. Babbar's niece Kajri Babbar is an upcoming filmmaker.^{[14][15][16][17]}

He launched his own home production; Babbar Films Pvt. Ltd. along with his brother Kishan. Under it, he has produced two films,Karm Yodha (1992) andKash Aap Hamare Hote (2003), and also the TV serialMaharaja Ranjit Singh (TV series) (2010).

• 1981: Nominated:Filmfare Award for Best Actor forInsaf Ka Tarazu
• 1984: Nominated:Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor forAgar Tum Na Hote
• 1985: Nominated: Filmfare Award for Best Actor forAaj Ki Awaaz
• 1994: Nominated:Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role forDalaal
• 1996: Nominated:Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role forYaraana

• Raj Babbar atIMDb

• India MPs 2004–2009
• 1952 births
• Indian male film actors
• Living people
• National School of Drama alumni
• Politicians from Agra
• Male actors in Bengali cinema
• Male actors in Hindi cinema
• 20th-century Indian male actors
• Indian actor-politicians
• Indian National Congress politicians from Uttar Pradesh
• Punjabi people
• India MPs 2009–2014
• Male actors in Punjabi cinema
• Lok Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh
• 21st-century Indian male actors
• United Progressive Alliance candidates in the 2014 Indian general election
• Samajwadi Party politicians from Uttar Pradesh
• Janata Dal politicians
• Rajya Sabha members from Uttarakhand
• India MPs 1999–2004
• People from Agra
• People from Firozabad district
• Agra College alumni
• Presidents of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee
• Method actors

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