NEW DELHI: Veteran Indian actor A. K. Hangal, whose Bollywood career spanned nearly five decades, has died. He was 95.    

Avtaar Kishan Hangal had suffered from lung and kidney problems and other ailments over the past few years. His son Vijay says the actor died Sunday of complications following a fall 10 days earlier.

Using his screen name A.K.Hangal , he acted in around 225 Hindi language films, mostly family dramas. As a young man, Hangal was involved in India's freedom movement against British rule and spent three years in prison. He was active in Mumbai's theater circles in the early 1950s before he moved to the film industry.

He specialized in character parts playing the uncle, doting grandfather or humble servant in films including the Bollywood hit “Sholay.”