Trivia

In the early 80s, Sharad Kumar quit the film industry and moved to Vancoucer BC, Canada . There he sold insurance as a job and did stage shows as a Indian Elvis Presley impersonator.

Also used the screen name "Jolly Bader" later on in his career abroad.

The prospect of working in show business entered Kumar's mind at 17, when a work acquaintance of his father - mother to two actresses - suggested the young man could be in the movies, one of the early Bollywood films featuring lots of dancing and singing. Though lacking in formal training, Kumar was tall, fresh-faced, with a thick head of wavy hair.

His biggest concert came in 1972, he says, when he performed for a crowd of 22,000 at an outdoor festival in Delhi. That year, he also appeared in the Bollywood film Zameen Aasman.

His children have also worked in the arts. Rohan Bader, his eldest, had a small part in Bollywood/Hollywood, while Rahul Bader is a musician partial to the kind of musical culture-clash his father enjoyed. Rahul appreciates that his father was drawn to music completely different from what he had grown up listening to.

The shows and films prompted breathless write-ups in India's English-language press. In 1970, he was named Mr. JS by then-popular Junior Statesman magazine.

At 20, he took a job as a flight attendant for Air India, a sought-after gig that let him travel for free. It moved him to Mumbai (then Bombay), hub of the burgeoning Bollywood cinema. The proximity would give him audition opportunities.

Was a major Elvis Presley as a 13 year old child. But his father disapproved of his singing English songs. He changed his name from Sharad Kumar Bader to Sharad Kumar for his career.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, as Elvis returned to performing after a movie-making stint in Hollywood, Sharad Kumar - he dropped the family surname on stage - was riding the star's glitzy coattails, gaining fame in his own right after turning his Elvis passion into a successful touring act.While the real deal wowed at shows almost exclusively in the U.S., Kumar toured India, Sri Lanka, Nairobi, Singapore and more - decked out in flared, shiny one-piece suits, of course - bringing a culture-clashing blend of Elvis and Hindi music to eager crowds.

At 35, with 11 movies and countless shows under his bejeweled belt, Kumar felt an urge to move to something new. The sheen of celebrity had worn off.Kumar and his new wife, Gita Bader, a kindergarten teacher turned Air India flight attendant he met at a party, traveled to Vancouver and fell in love with the city. Not long after, they packed up and moved.They lived on the west coast for six years as Kumar did a career 180 and worked in insurance. In the mid-'80s, two young boys in tow, they moved to Toronto, where for 10 years the family ran an Indian restaurant, called Chowpatty, in Scarborough.They also launched Zara's Gourmet Kitchen, an Indian vegetarian and vegan food company whose products are sold in health food and grocery stores.

With his wife and sons running Zara's, the retired Kumar now lives a quiet life after numerous health setbacks, including kidney failure and a heart attack.

After a few years, the woman who planted the showbiz seed in Kumar's head - whose daughter is well-known Indian actress Tanuja - alerted him to a screen test for a film in Madras (now Chennai). He got the second lead in the film, 1969's Paisa Ya Pyar.His career as a musical performer and film star shot up from there. He began staging musical performances in hotels and at outdoor festivals and events. He sang and dressed like Elvis, but didn't attempt the Southern, 'thankyouverymuch' drawl. He did try Elvis' jerky pelvis moves.

Has a sister in Calcutta.

His son Rohan Bader worked as a assistant film director in India .

Of Bengali nationality.

Sharad Kumar passed away in 2014.