Legendary actor and parliamentary member Akbar Hossain Pathan, popularly known as Farooque, has passed away.
The actor breathed his last while undergoing treatment at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore on Monday morning.
“My father died around 8:30am today. Please pray for my father,” said his son Rowshan Hossain Pathan Shorot.
He had been suffering from different ailments and undergoing treatment at the hospital for a long time.
He was known as “Mia Bhai” to mass people. He appeared in over 150 films in a career spanning more than five decades. Most of his films were commercially and critically successful.
He was the first awardee of the Bangladesh National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film Lathial in 1975 which he declined. In addition, he was awarded the Bangladesh National Film Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2016. As one of the most dominant actors in the Bangladeshi movie scene during the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, Farooque is widely considered one of the greatest and influential actors in the history of Bangladeshi cinema.
During Operation Searchlight, 25 March 1971, he participated in the first resistance of the liberation war in Malitola, Old Dhaka as second in command of their own guerrilla force commanded by ‘Nader Gunda’.
Farooque, also a film producer and businessman, was elected MP from Dhaka-17 constituency in the 2018 National Election.