Had Tom been alive he would have been of 68 years by now ! Heartfelt Tributes

Tom Alter was one of the best and most celebrated actors’ of Bollywood having outstandingly acted in multifarious roles during his career spanning more than four decades in over 350 films.

A versatile actor, par excellence, born on 22nd June 1950 in Mussourie, Garhwal, Uttarakhand, today is Tom Alter’s 68th Birth Anniversary. Had Tom been Alive today he would have been 68 years old. Left for his eternal home just last year on 27th September 2017 having uncurable skin cancer in Mumbai, leaving his huge fan following in anguish, Tom was an exceptional actor having tremendous knowlege of Urdu, hindi and english apart from Garhwali.

It really sounds different and surprising that a man born to the english parents though in India, having the American past, is so extraordinarily well versed in Urdu, Hindi and even a local Garhwali dialect apart from English which was his DNA Tom considered himself to be an Indian than an individual with an English or American background.

An actor par excellence having been highly influenced and inspired by the then Super Star of the seventies after having watched his super duper hit film thrice or five times Tom Alter who usually watched English Hollywood movies, finally gave up teaching at the age of 19 and left for Pune to seek addmission in prestigious FTII where he studied acting under his teacher one Mr. Taneja alongwith Nasruddin Shah, Benjamin Gilani etc and got his first role in Bollywood silver screen in 1972 never to look back again.

A die hard fan of the legendary super star Tom Alter’s grand parents were missioneries who came to Lahore in 1920 from Ohio, US and after partition in 1947, while his grand parents stayed back in Pakistan, his parents migrated to India.

Tom’s father who was highly academic taught English and literateur at Allahabad after first settling at Saharanpur and then at Rajpur Road Dehradun.

At the age of mere 19 his father arranged a job of a teacher for Tom in Jagadhari, Yamuna Nagar, Haryana where he taught English at St Mary school.

He was born in Mussourie where he studied till higher secondary and went to one of the best American universities YALE for higher studies.

But destiny had something else stored for him in India and he came back to Mussourie just after a year to join as a teacher in Jagadhiri, Haryana which opened doors of his Bollywood entry, after he watched ARADHANA THRICE having been highly influenced by KAKA’S outstanding histrionics.

As a Kaka fan himself Tom Alter has worked with the Superstar in 3 films NAUKRI 1978; KUDRAT 1981 & JAANWAR 1983 … A die-hard Rajesh Khanna fan,Tom said in a interview-“The first morning of the shoot of Naukri, in Bangalore, I have been told to report in the lobby of the Ashoka Hotel by 9 in the morning. I was there by 8:45. I stood at the entrance, looking out on the gardens.” Rajesh Khanna descended the stairs,& walked up to me, crinkled his eyes,& said “Mujhe Rajesh Khanna kahte hain.” I went with him in the car to the park which was our location, & at lunch time I took my food into a corner under a tree,He came up to me & asked “Tum film on mein kyon aaye?”…The answer came from my heart – “Aap ki wajah se”..As simple as that, as true as that.!!!!!!!!

In the interview Tom shared how he used to come all the way from Mussoorie to catch up with first day first show of RK films at Regal Cinema in Connaught Place. “We saw Anand, Dushman and Amar Prem by buying tickets in black for the first day first show,” he laughs ..“After I had watched Aradhana several times I decided to get into films. It was the era of Rajesh Khanna. I decided that I wanted to be a part of this magical world of Hindi films and got admitted in FTII & graduated in 1974.” “I still dream of being Rajesh Khanna. For me, no film in Hindi cinema comes close to Anand. In the early 1970s, He was the only hero — romantic to the core, not larger than life, so Indian and real — He was my hero; the reason I came into films and He still is.” Tom concluded

A famous cricketeer during his school days in Mussourie, Tom never had the slightest of an idea that he would ever be an actor par excellence in the future and that too of Hindi silver screen having no interest whatsoever, to watch hindi movies, earlier. He was the first person to have interviewed cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar at a mere age of 16 when he made his first debut century.

Tom’s parents were extremely God fearing who’d established an Ashram at Rajpura Road to help the poor, under privileged and the needy. His entire family including his mother, father , uncle, grandfather were missioneries and served the church but were great secularists as was Tom. Even his elder brother became father in a Church at the age of 70 but Tom Alter was an exception who had special penchant for acting after having been overtly influenced by the histrionics of the super star of the seventies Rajesh Khanna aka KAKA.

Considering himself to be the most luckiest man to have born and lived in the heaven on earth Mussourie Tom Alter initially got the roles of the Englishman in Hindi films due to his fair colour and personality but later on did all kinds of roles.

Senior to the most popular actor Nasirruddin Shah in FTII Pune, Tom Alter played the unique role of Dr. Abdul Kalam in a Rajya Sabha TV serial and the roles of Gandhi, Nehru, Sahil ludhianvi, n other prominent freedom fighters etc in number of popular theatre plays.

A multifaceted and multi dimensional legendary icon Tom spoke Urdu with such a great fluency and precision that no other actor in Bollywood would have such a perfection. Having acted in over 350 films and scores of pivotal roles in Indian theatre in such a short span of four and a half decades as compared to other actors Tom Alter was a real asset for the Indian Film Industry.

His passing away from our midst at such normal age of merely 67 years when he still looked so young, energetic and enthusiatic towards acting his untimely loss will be felt forever not only in the film fraternity but also in the entire Indian fraternity amongst the billions of his fans who loved and adored him so infinitely and beyond limits. good bye Tom. Your creative acting and humanism will guide your unlimited fans forever. AMEN.