Sheikh Mukhtar

Sheikh Mukhtar (24 December 1914 12 May 1980) was a film actor from India.

Early life and career
Sheikh Mukhtar was the son of Chaudhry Ashfaq Ahmed, who was a railway police inspector and was born in Karachi, British India; now Pakistan. Chaudhary Ashfaq Ahmed intentionally got transferred and migrated to Delhi. Sheikh Mukhtar was born on 24 December 1914 in Delhi.

He had spent his childhood years in Choodi Waalan Gali (near Jama Mosque, Delhi) and received education at an Anglo-Arabic school, Ajmeri Gate, Delhi. His father wanted his son to join the Police or Army, but Sheikh Mukhtar was keenly interested in theatre. One of his neighbours from his area started working in a theatre company, so Sheikh Mukhtar also moved to Kolkata and joined the company.

A tall and manly figure, he stood 6 feet and 4 inches, Sheikh Mukhtar played a variety of film roles, mostly the roles of villains. He produced the film Noor Jehan (1967), in which he played the role of Sher Afghan Quli Khan, the first husband of Queen Nur Jahan.

Filmography
Some of his movies are:
 * Bahen (1941)
 * Roti (1942)
 * Bhookh (1947),
 * Mr. Lambu (1956) (with Suraiya)
 * Chenghis Khan (1957)
 * Halaku (1957)
 *  Do Ustad (1959)
 * Ustadon Ke Ustad (1963)
 * Hum Sab Ustad Hai (1965)
 * Noor Jehan (1967) with Meena Kumari

He had produced Noor Jehan (1967 film), a Hindi movie, with hopes for it to be a 'hit' like Mughal-e-Azam (1960 film), but his movie flopped badly in India, which in turn disappointed him and he was heartbroken and probably this made him leave India for Pakistan. And along with him, he took the original prints of film Noor Jehan which, unfortunately for him, only got released in Pakistan twelve days after his death in 1980, but it became a 'hit' film there.

Death
After migrating from India to Pakistan in the late 1960s, he settled in Karachi, Pakistan. After some years there, he suffered a cardiac arrest on his flight from Lahore to Karachi and died in Karachi on 12 May 1980.