Kishore as a dramatist-musician, Mehmood as a Carnatic music and dance teacher, and Sunil Dutt as a simpleton named Bhola. Kishore's character was inspired by his uncle, Dhananjay Bannerjee, a classical singer. The highlight of the film was a musical, comical duel between Kumar, Sunil Dutt and Mehmood: "Ek Chatur Nar Karke Singaar. In 1969, Shakti Samanta produced and directed Aradhana. Kumar sang three songs in the film; "Mere Sapnon Ki Rani", "Kora Kagaj Tha Ye Man Mera" and "Roop Tera Mastana". Shakti Samanta suggested that Kumar sing the other songs too. When the film was released, Kumar's three songs established him as a leading playback singer of Hindi cinema. Kumar won his first Filmfare award for "Roop Tera Mastana". Acting career Kumar's first film appearance was in Shikari (1946), in which his brother, Ashok played the lead role. Kumar played the lead in the Bombay Talkies film Andolan (1951), directed by Phani Majumdar. Although he got some acting assignments with the help of his brother, he was more interested in becoming a singer. But Ashok wanted Kumar to be an actor like him. Between 1946 and 1955, Kumar appeared in 22 films of which 16 were flops and since he was disinterested in taking up acting as a career, he would find ways to be in the bad books of the director or producer, so that they throw him from their films. It was only after the success of films such as Ladki, Naukari, Miss Malaysia, Char Paise and Baap Re Baap that Kumar developed an interest in acting seriously, which resulted in him having successful films as the lead actor between 1955 and 1966. Kumar starred in Bimal Roy's Naukari (1954) and Hrishikesh Mukherjee's directorial debut Musafir (1957). Salil Chowdhury, the music director for Naukari, was initially dismissive of Kumar as a singer when he found that Kumar had no formal training in music. However, after hearing his voice, Chowdhury gave him the song Chhota Sa Ghar Hoga, which was supposed to be sung by Hemant Kumar. The commercially successful films of Kumar included Ladki (1953), Naukari (1954), Baap Re Baap (1955), Paisa Hi Paisa (1956), New Delhi (1956), Naya Andaz (1956), Bhagam Bhaag (1956), Bhai Bhai (1956), Aasha (1957), Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958), Dilli Ka Thug (1958), Jaalsaaz (1959), Bombay Ka Chor (1962), Chacha Zindabad (1959), Man-Mauji (1962), Jhumroo (1961), Half Ticket (1962), Mr. X in