Veteran producer Mohamed Riaz of the Mushir-Riaz duo passed away this evening (21st May) at Lilavati Hospital in Bombay. He was 74 and is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.
Riazbhai, as he was respectfully referred to, had produced a number of films from the 1970s to late 1990s with Mushirbhai who was his brother-in-law. Their last film under their banner, M.R. Productions, was the hit Virasat (1997), starring Anil Kapoor, Tabu and Pooja Batra. Among their earlier films were Safar (1970), Mehbooba (1976), Bairaag (1976), Apne Paraye (1980), Rajput (1982), Shakti (1982), Zabardast (1985), Samundar (1986), Commando (1988) and Akayla (1991).
Riazbhai hailed from Calcutta while Mushirbhai Alam was from Kanpur. The latter had a leather tannery. He had passed away three years ago. Both, Mushirbhai and Riazbhai, were extremely soft-spoken.