Mumbai, February 6 -- 75-year-old actor-producer Sujith Kumar passed way at his Mumbai residence on Friday. The veteran actor was battling with cancer for quite some time.

Sujith was well-known for choosing character roles in the movies. Throughout the 1960s to the early 1990s era, Kumar was among the most reliable and visible actors in Bollywood.

His popular screen image till this is of the guy playing a mouth organ while driving a jeep in the film ‘Aradhana’, where Rajesh Khanna woos Sharmila Tagore by singing a song.

Kumar is survived by his daughter Henna and son Jatin Kumar. A chautha ceremony will be taking place on Monday 5p.m. at the Indian Medical Association, Juhu, Mumbai.

Sujith’s journey in Bollywood
Sujith belonged to a small village near Varanasi and acted in 150 Hindi movies.

He was seen acting alongside stars like Rajesh Khanna in ‘Haathi Mere Saathi’, ‘Mehbooba’, ‘Amar Prem’ and ‘Roti’; with Amitabh Bachchan in ‘The Great Gambler’ and ‘Adalat’ and with Dharmendra in ‘Jugnu’, ‘Dharamveer’, ‘Charas’, and ‘Dream Girl.’

He not only picked character roles but also did comic as well as villain roles. He was also well-known for playing a spy in Ramanand Sagar’s ‘Aankein.’

Sujith made his debut in Bhojpuri films with ‘Bidesiya’ (1963) and went on to become the first ever superstar of Bhojpuri cinema. He worked in over 20 Bhojpuri films.

Sujith’s transition from actor to producer
In the 70s and 80s Sujith actively worked in movies. However, in the later stage of his life he focused all his energy solely towards producing films.

Kumar produced some well-known mega films like ‘Aetbaar’ (Amitabh Bachchan, John Abraham, and Bipasha Basu), ‘Khel’ (starring Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit), ‘Daraar’ in 1996 (Rishi Kapoor, Juhi Chawla) and Champion’ in 2000 (Sunny Deol, Manisha Koirala).