15 Famous People From Bihar Everyone Should Know About

   

Bihar is often associated with several negative stereotypes, however, it has always been a producer of some of the sharpest minds in the country. Starting from politicians to thinkers, educators and writers, Bihar has them all – here are 15 famous people from Bihar everyone should know about!

   

1. Dr. Rajendra Prasad

Born & brought up in Zeradai, in the Siwan district of Bihar, Dr. Rajendra Prasad was a lawyer and the first President of the Republic of India. He served in various educational institutions as a teacher, and was a major leader from the region of Bihar in the Indian National Congress. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1962. 

Source: Wikimedia Commons 

2. Ustad Bismillah Khan

Born in Dumraon, Bihar; Ustad Bismillah Khan later moved to Varanasi and grew up there. Known as one of the best musicians in the world, he was credited with popularising the shehnai & bringing it onto the mainstream classical stage. He received the Bharat Ratna in the year 2001. As a tribute to Ustad Bismillah Khan, Bihar Government has proposed setting up of a museum, a town hall-cum-library and installation of a life-size statue at his birthplace in Dumraon. 

Source: Wikimedia Commons

3. Subrata Roy 

Born in Araria in Bihar, Subrata Roy is the founder and Chairman of the Sahara India Group. He was named among the 10 Most Powerful People of India in 2012 by India Today. He received the Business Icon of the Year award in London in 2011 and Businessmen of the Year Award in 2002. However, Roy was under judicial custody from March 2014 to May 2016 for failing to appear before the Supreme Court in connection with the Rs. 24,000 crore deposits his company owed to investors. 

Source: Wikimedia Commons

4. Prakash Jha

Born and brought up in Barharwa, West Champaran, Bihar, Prakash Jha is an Indian film producer, director & screenwriter known for his socio-political films. His major hits include Damul, Gangaajal, Raajneeti, Aarakshan & Satyagraha. Jha runs a production company called Prakash Jha Productions and owns the P&M Mall in Patna. He was also involved with development initiatives in Bihar for the last five years and has been spearheading growth in infrastructure, health care and vocational training facilities in the state through the NGO Anubhooti

Source: Wikimedia Commons 

5. Shatrughan Sinha

Born & brought up in Patna, Bihar, Shatrughan Sinha is an alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India Pune. He is a member of the Indian National Congress since 2019, and was a member of the Lok Sabha from Bihar State from 2009 to 2019. Sinha won the IIFA award for Outstanding Contribution to Indian cinema in 2014

Source: Wikimedia Commons 

6. Anil Agarwal

Originally from a poor family in Patna, Bihar, Anil Agarwal left Patna at the age of 19, moved to Mumbai & worked as a scrap dealer for a while, and later became the founder and executive chairman of Sterlite Industries & Vedanta Resources. He had a net worth of $3 billion as of February 2021. 

Source: Flickr

7. Jayaprakash Narayan

Born in the Sitabdiara village of Saran District (Now Called Chapra) in Bihar, Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly referred to as JP or Lok Nayak, was an Indian independence activist, social reformer and political leader. He is remembered especially for leading the mid-1970s opposition against Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He called for a “total revolution” to force her to withdraw as PM, which led to the declaration of Emergency. He was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1999, The Patna airport is named after him. Interestingly, his death was announced in Parliament before his actual death. 

Source: Wikimedia Commons 

8. Nitish Kumar

   

Born in Bakhtiarpur, Bihar, Nitish Kumar is a B.Tech Graduate from NIT, Patna & is the Chief Minister of Bihar since February 2015. He is a member of the Janata Dal (United) party. Kumar gained popularity by initiating various developmental and constructive activities in Bihar which were long delayed & never implemented by previous governments. He was ranked 77th in prestigious Foreign Policy Magazine top 100 global thinkers 2012 & Forbes “India’s Person of the Year”. In 2010 he was recognized as “The Best Chief Minister” according to the CNN-IBN and also on the Hindustan Times State of the Nation Poll in 2007. 

Source: Wikimedia Commons 

9. Kirti Azad

Born in Purnea, Bihar, Kirti Azad is a former Indian cricketer & is the son of former Chief Minister of Bihar, Bhagwat Jha Azad. He played in 7 Tests and 25 ODIs from 1980 to 1986, and was part of the Indian team that won the 1983 Cricket World Cup. He served his third term in the Lok Sabha till 2019, having won the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections from Darbhanga. 

10. Ramdhari Singh Dinkar 

Born in Simaria village in Begusarai, Ramdhari Singh “Dinkar” was an Indian Hindi poet and academic, considered to be one of the most significant Hindi poets of modern times. He was hailed as a Rasthrakavi for the nationalistic poems that he wrote before independence. He was elected thrice to the Rajya Sabha, and was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1959. He also received a Sahitya akademi award the same year. 

Source: Wikimedia Commons 

11. Manoj Bajpayee

Born in Belwa in West Champaran, Manoj Bajpayee is an Indian actor who primarily works in Hindi movies. He has also appeared in Telugu and Tamil language movies, and also appears in the leading role in the Prime Video original series, The Family Man. He is the recipient of three National Awards, four Filmfare awards, and two Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

Source: Wikimedia Commons 

12. Laloo Prasad Yadav

Born in Phulwaria in Bihar, Laloo Prasad Yadav is the former chief minister of Bihar and a former union minister of Railways. He is the president of Rashtriya Janata Dal. Laloo was convicted in the massively controversial Fodder scam, and was in Jail until early 2021, when he was granted bail. 

Source: Flickr

13. Ravish Kumar

Born in Areraj in East Champaran district, Ravish Kumar is an Indian journalist and media personality. He is the senior executive director of NDTV, and is known for his veracity and uncensored criticism. Kumar became the fifth Indian journalist to receive the Ramon Magsaysay award in 2019 and has twice received the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award. 

Source: Wikimedia Commons 

14. Ashok Kumar 

Born in Bhagalpur in Bengal Presidency (present-day Bihar), Ashok Kumar was an Indian actor, considered one of the finest in the history of Indian cinema. He was a member of the cinematic Ganguly family, which included two other brothers – Anoop Kumar and Kishore Kumar, and sister Sati Rani Mukherjee who eventually started the Mukherjee clan in cinema. 

Source: Wikimedia Commons 

15. Anand Kumar 

Born in Patna, Anand Kumar is an Indian educator who founded the Super 30 programme which coaches children from underprivileged backgrounds for JEE-Advanced, an extremely competitive entrance examination that can secure one’s admission into the premier engineering colleges in India. By 2018, 422 out of 510 of his students had made it to IITs. In 2019, Hrithik Roshan appeared in Super 30, a film based on Kumar’s life. 

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Did you like this list of famous people from Bihar? If you think we missed someone out, comment below to let us know!

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