Kumudlal Ganguly (13 October 1911 – 10 December 2001), better known by his stage name Ashok Kumar and also fondly called Dadamuni, was an Indian film actor who attained iconic status in Indian cinema and who was a member of the cinematic Ganguly family.He was honoured in 1988 with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest national award for cinema artists, by the Government of India and also received the Padma Bhushan in 1999 for his contributions to Indian cinema.Ashok Kumar was born Kumudlal Ganguly to a Bengali Hindu Brahmin family in Bhagalpur, Bengal Presidency, British India (present-day Bihar, India). His father, Kunjlal Ganguly, was a lawyer while his mother, Gouri Devi, was a house wife. Kumudlal was the eldest of four children. His only sister, Sati Devi, a few years younger to him, was married at a very young age to Sashadhar Mukherjee and became the matriarch of a large "film family". Next was his brother, Kalyan, more than 14 years younger (b.1927), who later took the screen name Anoop Kumar.
