‘My father had a cardiac arrest while cutting Amitabh Bachchan’s hair,’ says Aalim Hakim, recalling his dad’s final moments

The man behind ‘hero hair,’ literally, Aalim Hakim, recently got candid about his late father Hakim Kairanvi, who was a celebrated hairstylist back in his days. Today, Aalim Hakim is known for his work with Rajinikanth, Shah Rukh Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, and more, and in the 60s, his father was associated with Amitabh Bachchan, Sunil Dutt, Dilip Kumar, and others. Aalim Hakim shared that his father’s last moments were also on the set, while he was giving Mr. Bachchan a haircut.

Hakim Kairanvi had a heart attack while cutting Amitabh Bachchan’s hair, reveals son Aalim Hakim

While speaking to Screen, Alim Hakim shared that his father suffered cardiac arrest on the sets of Amitabh Bachchan’s movie ‘Mard,’ while he was giving the superstar a cut. Following the heart attack, the next day, he left the mortal world.




“My dad died doing his haircut. His last haircut of life was of Amit ji. He was cutting his hair, he had a cardiac arrest. It was during the shoot of Mard in Mysore. So he was doing his continuity haircut, while doing so, he complained of chest pain, and the next day he passed away,” Aalim Hakim said.

In the conversation, he mentioned his father’s longstanding association with Amitabh Bachchan. He said Sunil Dutt introduced his father to Big B, and once they started working together, there was no looking back. Be it Mr. Bachchan's look from 'Sholay' or 'Amar Akhbar Anthony,' it was Hakim Kairanvi who gave the actor his iconic hairstyles.

“My dad’s collaboration with Bachchan saab was right after his first film. Everything he did after ‘Saat Hindustani’ was all done by my dad. ‘Reshma Aur Shera’ was Amit ji’s second film, and Sunil Dutt was there, who was my dad’s client. So it was Dutt saab who introduced my dad to him. The collaboration started then, and it lasted till the very end of his career," he said before adding, "So all the popular hairstyles you see in films like ‘Sholay,’ ‘Zanjeer,’ ‘Don,’ ‘Amar Akbar Anthony,’ ‘Deewaar,’ my dad was the man behind it."

Late celebrity hairstylist Hakim Kairanvi worked with international stars, including Bruce Lee

In addition to Amitabh Bachchan, the late celebrity hairstylist worked with other big names, including Shatrughan Singh, Dilip Kumar, and more. Interestingly, his client list is not limited to just Bollywood stars. His son, who followed in his footsteps, shared that his father styled Hollywood actors and even a cricketer from the England team. He said, “My father worked with everyone. Be it Dilip Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha, Jeetendra, you name the top-most stars, and my father did a haircut for all of them. All of them from the 60s up till the 80s. And not only Indian actors but also international stars used to desire to get a haircut done from my father whenever they used to visit India.”

“Be it Bruce Lee, or Richard Harris, or even Mohammad Ali, or England cricket player Tony Greig, all these legends got their haircut done from him,” he concluded.

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