India, April 4 -- Bollywood's Bharat Kumar, veteran actor Manoj Kumar, died on Friday morning at the age of 87. The veteran actor had a stellar career where he monopolised patriotic films in Hindi cinema and broke new boundaries in what films could achieve. While he is best remembered for evergreen classics like Poorab Aur Paschim and Upkar in the 60s, his biggest hit came much later, and changed the way Hindi cinema worked outside the theatres.

Manoj Kumar entered cinema as an actor when he was barely 20 in 1957, but did not find success as a hero until much later. His first hit was Hariyali Aur Rasta in 1962, but it was the 1965 blockbuster Shaheed that made him a star. This also encouraged him to do more patriotic films. He turned dir...