Remembering the film actor Shyam on his birth centenary (20 February 1920–25 April 1951). Born as Sunder Shyam Chadda, Shyam began his career in 1942 and acted in many memorable roles - Mann kee Jeet (1944), Majboor (1948), Dillagi (1949), Patanga (1949), Chandni Raat (1949), Meena Bazaar (1950) and Samadhi 1950). He died on the set of the film Shabistanbin 1951 after he fell off a horse. The film was completed with a stand-in and body double in his place.

Shyam originally hailed from Sialkot but grew up in Rawalpindi. He graduated from Gordon College in Rawalpindi. He was a close personal friend of Saadat Hasan Manto and was the inspiration of many of his stories. Even after partition their bond of friendship endured.

One of Shyam’s famous movies was Bazaar, released in 1949 where he starred with Nigar Sultana. He married a Muslim, Mumtaz Qureshi (nickname 'Taji') with whom he had a daughter, Pakistani TV actress Sahira Kazmi, married to actor Rahat Kazmi, and a son named Shakir (born two months after his death), a psychiatrist based in UK. His wife migrated to Lahore, Pakistan, after his premature death in 1951, along with her elder sister, Zeb Qureshi, who was an actress in Bombay. Mumtaz later married a gentleman Ansari after Shyam's death. His children were raised as Muslims.