List of people from Punjab (India)
This is a list of famous and notable Indian people from Punjab. This would include persons who are known to a large number of people and is not based on the extent of their popularity. Neither is the list viewed from the context of the present. Their fame could be brief, what matters is that they were well known during the peak of their popularity.
Military leaders
Indian Armed Forces
Airforce
- Marshal Arjan Singh, Former Chief of Indian Air Force.,[1] Only Marshal in the History of Indian Air Force
- Air Chief Marshal Surinder Mehra, Former Chief of Indian Air Force.
- Air Chief Marshal Nirmal Chandra Suri, Former Chief of Indian Air Force.
- Air Chief Marshal Satish Sareen, Former Chief of Indian Air Force.
- Air Chief Marshal Dilbagh Singh, Former Chief of Indian Air Force.
- Air Chief Marshal Om Prakash Mehra, Former Chief of Indian Air Force.[2]
- Harita Kaur Deol, first Indian woman pilot in the Indian Air Force, on a solo flight .
Army
- General Deepak Kapoor, Indian Army Chief.
- General Pran Nath Thapar, Former Indian Army Chief.
- General Om Prakash Malhotra, Former Indian Army Chief.
- General Ved Prakash Malik, Former Indian Army Chief.
- General Nirmal Chander Vij, Former Indian Army Chief.
- General Joginder Jaswant Singh, Former Indian Army Chief.[3]
- Lt General Punita Arora, first woman in the Indian Armed Forces to don the second highest rank of Lt General[4] and the first lady to become the Vice-Admiral of Indian Navy.[5]
Navy
- Admiral S.N Kohli, Former Chief Of Indian Navy
- Admiral S.M Nanda, Former Chief Of Indian Navy who became famous as The Man who Bombed Karachi.'
Early Modern era
- Maharaja Ranjit Singh
- Banda Singh Bahadur
- Baba Deep Singh
- Nawab Kapur Singh
- Hari Singh Dhillon
- Bhuma Singh Dhillon
- Hari Singh Nalwa
- Jassa Singh Ahluwalia
- Jassa Singh Ramgarhia
- Diwan Sawan Mal
- Diwan Mulraj
Business
Sunil Bharti Mittal is an Indian businessman. He is the chairman and managing director of the Bharti Telecom.
- Sunil Bharti Mittal Chairman and managing director of the Bharti group
- Aroon Purie India Today group
- Gulshan Kumar T Series
- Kanwal Rekhi One of the first India Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley
- Mohan Singh Oberoi, Oberoi Hotels[6]
- Gurbaksh Chahal
- Jay Sidhu, Former Chairman and CEO of Sovereign Bancorp
- Malvinder Mohan Singh, Ranbaxy/Fortis Group
- Reuben Singh, entrepreneur
- Vikram Chatwal, Hotelier
- Tom Singh Founder, New Look fashion chain
- Avtar Lit Founder, Sunrise Radio
- Sanjiv Sidhu, Founder and President of i2 Technologies
- Gaurav Dhillon
- Hemant Lamba
- Bob Singh Dhillon
- Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder of Hotmail.
- Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways
Artists
Educators and Scientists
- Satish Dhawan
- Har Gobind Khorana Nobel Prize Winner
- Megh R. Goyal Father of Irrigation Engineering in Puerto Rico
- Narinder Singh Kapany
Astronauts
Bollywood
Families
The Kapoors – 1[7]
- Raj Kapoor
- Shammi Kapoor
- Geeta Bali
- Shashi Kapoor
- Randhir Kapoor
- Rishi Kapoor
- Neetu Singh
- Rajiv Kapoor
- Karisma Kapoor
- Kareena Kapoor
- Ranbir Kapoor
- Prithviraj Kapoor
- Shahid Kapoor
The Kapoors – 2
- Surinder Kapoor
Shekhar Kapoor is a well known Indian director. - Boney Kapoor
- Anil Kapoor
- Sanjay Kapoor
- Sonam Kapoor
The Kapoors – 3
- Jeetendra (Ravi Kapoor)
- Tusshar Kapoor
- Ekta Kapoor
The Malhotras
- Premnath
- Bina Rai
- Rajindernath
- Prem Krishen
The Sahnis
The Anands
- Chetan Anand
- Dev Anand
- Vijay Anand
- Shekhar Kapur
The Chopras
The Deols
The Dutts
The Tullis
The Puris
The Khannas – 1
The Khannas – 2
The Roshans
The Bedis
The Kapurs
- Pankaj Kapur
- Shahid Kapoor
Indian actor Shahid Kapoor.
The Devgans
The Oberois
The Paintals
The Aroras
Individual artists
- Amrish Puri[9]
- Anand Bakshi
- Achala Sachdev
- Akshay Kumar[10]
- Amrita Singh
- Aryan Vaid
- Anushka Sharma
- Bindiya Goswami
- Bhumika Chawla
- Celina Jaitley
Celina
- Deepak Parashar
Sonam Kapoor is an Indian film actor. - David Dhawan
- Deepti Naval
- Dara Singh
- Divya Dutta
- Gul Panag
- Govinda
- Gulshan Grover
- Gracy Singh
- Honey Singh
- I. S. Johar
- Juhi Chawla
- Juhi Babbar
- Jimmy Shergill
- Jimmy Sharma
- Kapil Sharma
- Kamini Kaushal
- Kanwaljit Singh
- Karan Singh Grover
- Kunal Kapoor
- Kunal Kohli
- Kulbhushan Kharbanda
- Kiran Juneja
- Kirron Kher
- Karan Johar
- Manoj Kumar
- Mangal Dhillon
- Mukesh Khanna
- Mandira Bedi
- Monica Bedi
- Neha Dhupia
- Navin Nischol
- Om Prakash
- Poonam Dhillon
- Prem Chopra[11]
- Pran
- Parmeet Sethi
- Parminder Gill
- Pooja Batra
- Pooja Bedi
- Priyanka Chopra[12]
Priyanka Chopra is an Indian film actor. - Ruby Bhatia
- Ranjeet
- Raj Babbar
- Rati Agnihotri
- Raveena Tandon
- Raageshwari
- Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
- Rajat Kapoor
- Rahul Roy
- Rajit Kapur
- Rubina Shergill
- Simone Singh
- Shiny Ahuja
- Suraiya
- Simi Garewal
- Saeed Jaffrey
- Shakti Kapoor
- Simran Mundi
- Sonu Walia
- Sunny Gill
- Sunny Leone
- Tamannaah (Tinsel Randhawa)
- Tara Sharma
- Urvashi sharma
- Vinod Mehra
- Yogeeta Bali
Altamash Khan [going to be an actor in future]
Visual Effect Artist
- Harprit Singh Kang[13]
Documentary Film Makers
Directors
Crossover directors and actors (Hollywood)
- Mira Nair
- Deepa Mehta
- Gurinder Chadha
- Namrata Singh Gujral
- Meera Syal
- Sanjeev Bhaskar
- Parminder Nagra
- Saira Mohan
- Purva Bedi
- Waris Ahluwalia
- Archie Panjabi
- Art Malik
History
Porus and Alexender
- Charaka
- Pāṇini
- King Porus[14][15]
- Shahi King Bhima
- Dulla Bhatti
Folklore
- Heer Ranjha
- Mirza Sahiba
- Puran Bhagat
- Sohni Mahiwal
- Sucha Soorma
- Sayful Muluk
- Sassi Punnun
Religious and spiritual figures
Sikh
- Harbhajan Singh Yogi
- Giani Sant Singh Maskeen
Related to Sikhism
- Sri Chand, son of Guru Nanak Dev ji
Writers
Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu
- Bhai Gurdas
- Giani Gurdit Singh
- Bulleh Shah
- Waris Shah
- Hashim Shah
- Mian Muhammad Baksh
- Shah Mohammad
- Shardha Ram Phillauri
- Nanak Singh
- Dhani Ram Chatrik
- Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha
- Bhai Vir Singh
- Rajinder Singh Bedi
- Shiv Kumar Batalvi
- Damodar Das Arora
- Faiz Ahmed Faiz
- Sahir Ludhianvi
- Shareef Kunjahi
- Amrita Pritam
- Gulzar, (Full name Sampooran Singh Gulzar), Oscar winner for movie Slumdog Millionaire
- Jaswant Neki
- Pash
- Rupinderpal Singh Dhillon
- Harbhajan Singh
- Munir Niazi
- Ajmer Rode
- Navtej Bharati
- Jaswant Singh Kanwal
- Hafeez Jullundhri
- Mohammed Iqbal
- Saadat Hasan Manto
- Mehr Lal Soni Zia Fatehabadi
English
Khushwant Singh is a prominent Indian novelist and journalist.
- Mulk Raj Anand
- Khushwant Singh[16]
- Romila Thapar
- Vikram Chandra
- Vikram Seth
- Kartar Singh Duggal
- Amrita Pritam
- Partap Sharma
- Tariq Ali
- Susham Bedi
- Deepak Chopra
- Ahmed Rashid
- Manil Suri
- Nadeem Aslam
- Neville Tuli
- Jaspreet Singh
Journalists
India
- Kuldip Nayar
- Arun Shourie
- Aroon Purie
- Tarun Tejpal
- Prabhu Chawla
- Nalini Singh
- Tavleen Singh
- Yoginder Sikand
- Veeresh Malik
- Karan Thapar
- Vikram Chandra
Electronic/Broadcast
India
- Vinod Dua
- Karan Thapar
- Satinder Bindra
- Monita Rajpal
- Daljit Dhaliwal
- Aniruddha Bahal
- Barkha Dutt
- Amrita Cheema
- Tavleen Singh
- Vikram Chandra
Tamil cinema
- Simran Bagga, Punjabi Hindu
- Sonia Agarwal, Punjabi Hindu
- Jyothika, Punjabi Muslim
Models
- Karen Malhotra, more commonly known as Sunny Leone, an Indian actress.
- Jesse Randhawa, a Bollywood model
- Manmeet Singh
Musicians
Classical
Bollywood
- Uttam Singh
- Suraiya
- K.L. Saigal
- Shamshad Begum
- Mohammed Rafi
- Mahendra Kapoor
- Madan Mohan
- Sukhwinder Singh
- Shailender Singh
- Anand Raj Anand
- Kamal Khan, Bollywood playback singer
Ghazals
- Ghulam Ali
Bhangra and other Punjabi Folk
India
- Jagmeet Bal
- Asa Singh Mastana
- Surinder Shinda
- Surinder Kaur
- Kuldeep Manak
- Amar Singh Chamkila
- Gurdas Mann
- Malkit Singh
- Manmohan Waris
- Kamal Heer
- Daler Mehndi
- Surjit Bindrakhia
- Babbu Mann
- Balkar Sidhu
- Lehmber Hussainpuri
- Hans Raj Hans
- Parminder Gill Barnala
- Sukhwinder Singh
- Jaspinder Narula
- Kulwinder Dhillon
- Bombay Rockers
- Harshdeep Kaur
- Sukhbir
- Labh Janjua
- Sukhshinder Shinda
- Bally Sagoo
- Apache Indian
- Channi Singh
- Panjabi MC
- Jay Sean
- Hard Kaur
- Rishi Rich
- Juggy D
- Taz
- B21
- Dr. Zeus
- Harbhajan Mann
- Jazzy B
- Miss Pooja
Pop and Rock
India
- Amrinder Gill
- Baba Sehgal
- Rabbi Shergill
- Mika Singh
- Vikas Bhalla
- Honey Singh
Revolutionaries
- Lala Lajpat Rai
- Bhai Parmanand
- Harnam Singh
- Udham Singh
- Kartar Singh Sarabha
- Bhagat Singh
- Madan Lal Dhingra
- Sardul Singh Caveeshar
- Sukhdev
- Bhai Mati Das
Politicians
India
- Amarinder Singh
- Arun Jaitley
- Baldev Singh
- Bibi Jagir Kaur
- Buta Singh
- Darbara Singh
- Giani Zail Singh
- Gulzari Lal Nanda
- Gurcharan Singh Tohra
- Gurdial Singh Dhillon
- Harkishan Singh Surjeet
- Inder Kumar Gujral
- Krishan Kant
- Madanlal Khurana
- Malik Umar Hayat Khan
- Manmohan Singh
- Master Tara Singh
- Parkash Singh Badal
- Pratap Singh Kairon
- Rajinder Kaur Bhattal
- Sant Fateh Singh
- Sardul Singh Caveeshar
- Simranjit Singh Mann
- Surjit Singh Barnala
- Swaran Singh
- Laxmi Kanta Chawla
Sportspersons
Tennis
Cricket
India
Harbhajan, pictured here bowling in the nets
- Yadavendra Singh
- Lala Amarnath
- Mohinder Amarnath
- Surinder Amarnath
- Bishan Singh Bedi
- Balwinder Sandhu
- Bhupinder Singh snr
- Gursharan Singh
- Yograj Singh
- Amarjit Kaypee
- Maninder Singh
- Rajinder Ghai
- Surinder Khanna
- Navjot Singh Sidhu
- Manoj Prabhakar
- Chetan Sharma
- Madan Lal
- Ashok Malhotra
- Vijay Mehra
- Aashish Kapoor
- Atul Wassan
- Akash Chopra
- Nikhil Chopra
- Dinesh Mongia
- Harvinder Singh
- Harbhajan Singh
- Yuvraj Singh
- V. R. V. Singh
- Reetinder Sodhi
- Gourav Dhiman
- Piyush Chawla
- Gautam Gambhir
- Virat Kohli
- Sunny Sohal
Hockey
Field hockey
- Ajitpal Singh
- Balbir Singh Sr.
- Prithipal Singh
- Baljeet Singh Saini
- Gagan Ajit Singh
- Prabhjot Singh
- Ramandeep Singh
- Baljit Singh Dhillon
- Deepak Thakur
- Dhyan Chand
- Surjit Singh Randhawa
Ice hockey
Athletics
- Milkha Singh
- Ajmer Singh (1940–2010), Olympian and 1966 Jakarta Asian Games gold medallist sprinter[17]
- Rupa Saini
- Kamaljeet Sandhu
- Baljinder Singh (born 1986), race walker
Golf
Wrestling
The "Great" Gama
- The Great Khali, (real name Dalip Singh Rana) an Indian professional wrestler, actor, and former powerlifter
- The Great Gama
- Dara Singh
- Jinder Mahal
- Premchand Dhingra
- Tiger Jeet Singh
- Gurjit Singh
- Sonjay Dutt (real name Ritesh Bhalla), a TNA wrestler
- Ayushmoy Roy, infamous flat 79 corridor wrestler and proud bearer of 15 inch super biceps.
- Ghuller Pehlwan
- vijay kumar- real name as Billa pehalwaan, Rustam e hind As Bharat kesari and also win the title of Sitaare – e – Punjab. he has won the both titles at the same day can be recorded in the Indian history of the world wrestlers.
- Sohan Singh- he has also won the many titles and works at the coach at amritsar (Goal bagh stadium) as the professionalist .
- Maddi- He has also won the title of sitaare – e – Punjab and also won many titles by punajb sports organisation.
Fighters
- Akshay Kumar-real name Rajeev Bhatia, black belt in Karate, is an Indian film actor now.
- Veeru Devgan-father of Ajay Devgan, action and stunt designer.
Shooting
- Abhinav Bindra 1st individual Olympic Gold Medalist
- Gagan Narang – the only Indian to win two medals at a World championship
- Avneet Sidhu – Commenwealth Games Medalist, Arjun Awardee
Billiards
Cycling
- Alexi Grewal, American-Sikh won gold medal in Olympics
Soccer
- Michael Chopra, English footballer
- Harpal Singh
- Harmeet Singh
See also
References
- ↑ http://www.mapsofindia.com/who-is-who/defence/marshal-arjan-singh.html
- ↑ http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/History/Air-Chiefs/Chiefs-Air-8.html
- ↑ http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/ARMY/Army-Chiefs/Chiefs-Army24.html
- ↑ http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/ARMY/Articles/Article36.html
- ↑ "AFMC chief becomes first lady Vice-Admiral". Indian Express. Retrieved 2005-05-17.
- ↑ Mohan Singh Oberoi Britannica.com.
- ↑ http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_29-12-2003_pg7_25
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20071211120409/http://164.100.24.209/newls/Biography.aspx?mpsno=197 Parliamentary Biography
- ↑ http://www.gatewayforindia.com/entertainment/amrishpuri.htm
- ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0474774/
- ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0159159/
- ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1231899/bio
- ↑ http://epaper.bhaskar.com/detail/?id=326497&boxid=9211215656&ch=cph&map=map¤tTab=tabs-1&pagedate=09/21/2013&editioncode=319&pageno=5&view=image
- ↑ http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/alexanderpeople/g/Porus.htm
- ↑ http://www.livius.org/pn-po/porus/porus.htm
- ↑ http://www.iloveindia.com/indian-heroes/khushwant-singh.html
- ↑ "Olympian athlete Ajmer Singh passed away". The Times of India. Jan 27, 2010.