Dharmendra blazed across the screen like fire, yet off it, he remained the kind-hearted villager who never forgot where he came from. He navigated the storm of changing eras, the Rajesh Khanna phenomenon that eclipsed every other star, followed by Amitabh Bachchan’s rise as the angry young man. Dharmendra stood unshaken, delivering one hit after another. His appeal stretched across the nation. But it was the heartlands, the villages and small towns, that loved him most, embracing him not just as a star, but as one of their own.
Born in 1935 in Nasrali, a small village near Ludhiana, Punjab, the son of a schoolteacher. His childhood was simple, marked by quiet village days and the occasional thrill of a film screening. One such screening changed everything. Watching Dilip Kumar in 'Shaheed' (1948), young Dharmendra felt a spark he could not ignore, a longing to step into that glittering world. Years later, in a 2013 interview with Khushwant Singh, he recalled the moment with his signature sincerity: “The moment I saw the handsome men and the beautiful women, I knew I was meant for the cine world.”
He made his film debut in 1960 with the romantic drama 'Dil Bhi Tera Hum Bhi Tere' followed by films like 'Bandini' (1963) and 'Kaajal' (1965) that drew attention to his sincerity and screen presence. But it was 'Phool Aur Patthar' (1966) that made him a household name. It was a shirtless scene in the film and on the posters, which helped cement his image as Hindi cinema’s original action hero and a figure of striking, Greek-god looks.
Dharmendra was an original. It’s an often-overlooked aspect when discussing his performances. He never followed a template. He never imitated anyone. After independence, Bollywood’s first big star-trio Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, and Dev Anand led the charge, setting templates that many newcomers tried to emulate in that era as well in the following decades. Actors Rajendra Kumar and Manoj Kumar walked in Dilip Kumar’s shadow, while Shammi Kapoor carried forward Dev Anand’s flamboyant flair. Dharmendra, a self-confessed Dilip fan, ignored the rulebook and carved his own path.
By the late 1960s, Dharmendra had proved he was more than just good looks. In Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s 'Satyakam' (1969), Dharmendra delivered one of his finest performances as a principled idealist crushed under the weight of a corrupt world, but the film was a flop. That very year, Rajesh Khanna swept the nation off its feet, his sugary romantic charm creating a frenzy that seemed unstoppable. Khanna eclipsed every other star in those years, except Dharmendra who met the Khanna-phenomenon head-on, delivering a string of hits in different genres. 'Jeevan Mrityu' and 'Sharafat' followed by the action blockbuster 'Mera Gaon Mera Desh' in 1971. By 1972, hits like 'Seeta Aur Geeta', 'Raja Jani', and 'Samadhi' reinforced his unshakable hold on audiences. When 'Sholay' was being planned, it was Dharmendra who stood at the centre as its biggest star.
The 1975 Emergency had angered the public. Bollywood responded with films where heroes rose against corruption and establishment. During this phase, Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘angry young man’ persona swept the limelight. But it’s a fact that few actors matched the variety Dharmendra displayed in 1975 alone. That year, he played Veeru, the wisecracking outlaw in 'Sholay', India’s greatest blockbuster. In the same year, he was the gentle trucker pretending to be a policeman in 'Pratigya', dancing to the chartbuster “Mai jat yamla pagla deewana” and the mischievous professor Dr Parimal Tripathi in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s classic comedy 'Chupke Chupke', where his impeccable comic timing carried the film effortlessly. In 1977, he scored a mammoth-blockbuster with Manmohan Desai’s action drama 'Dharam Veer'.
It’s a pity that in the years that followed, Bollywood began to typecast Dharmendra as just an action hero, forgetting the depth and charm that had once defined him. In 1983, he launched his son, Sunny Deol in 'Betaab', a film that became a runaway hit. Ironically, Dharmendra was still very much a leading man himself, sharing screens, and sometimes even romantic tracks, with the same heroines cast opposite his son: Sridevi, Jaya Prada, Amrita Singh, and Dimple Kapadia.
The mid-1980s were a strange, restless period in Bollywood. Formulaic tales of crime, vengeance, and macho heroics churned out endlessly, as the industry hunted for a successor to the angry young man of the 1970s. Amid it all, Dharmendra’s name lingered, but increasingly, he was reduced to bellowing lines that started with, “Kutte, kameene! Main tera khoon pi jaoonga!” The films fared well at the box office, but critics were moving on. His collaboration with J.P. Dutta, notably 'Ghulami' (1985), drew praise, yet most of his work was now lost in crowded multi-starrers, where his star power was shared among many.
But his immense popularity gave him a remarkable comeback. We often talk about Bollywood’s return to romance and music with Aamir Khan’s 'Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak' (1988) and Salman Khan’s 'Maine Pyaar Kiya' (1989), when the nation embraced a new generation of soft, chocolaty heroes after the dark 1980s. But rewind just one year to 1987, and the story was entirely different.
Who was India’s biggest star then? The biggest star in India in 1987 wasn’t a boy-next-door. It was Dharmendra. At 51, he stormed back into the big league, headlining not one, not two, but six hits in a single year: 'Insaniyat Ke Dushman', 'Loha', 'Aag Hi Aag', 'Watan Ke Rakhwale', 'Insaf Ki Pukar', and the ultra-violent 'Hukumat', the highest grosser of the year. One scene from 'Watan Ke Rakhwale' remains etched in memory: Dharmendra, bare-handed, ripping a villain’s stomach open after warning him with the unforgettable words: “Kutte kamine, tu mujhse bachkar nahi ja sakta… main tujhe dhoondkar tera kaleja cheer doonga… main tera pet phaad daloonga.” Sadly, this was how a generation of fans in the 1980s and ’90s chose to remember Dharmendra overshadowing his talent and range.
In the following years, as Bollywood welcomed many new, younger stars, Dharmendra’s 'Elaan-E-Jung' and 'Khatron Ke Khiladi' found a loyal audience in India’s heartland. But his stardom gradually waned in the 1990s. For reasons known best to him, he turned to low-budget B- and C-grade action thrillers like 'Smuggler', 'Gundagardi', 'Mafia' and 'Aatank', films that played to packed single-screens across small-town India. While the industry moved on, Dharmendra remained where he had always belonged, with the masses who never stopped cheering his name.
Even in his later years, Dharmendra impressed with sensitive turns in 'Life in a... Metro' (2007) , 'Johnny Gaddaar' and 'Apne' (2007). In 2023, his cameo in Karan Johar’s 'Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani' reminded a new generation why his charm never faded.
It’s almost unbelievable that despite a hugely successful career, that spanned decades and over 250 films, and more hits than any of his contemporaries, he never won an acting award. A fact that quietly weighed on him.
In 1997, when he finally received the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award, it felt like cinema itself was making amends. Standing on that stage, Dharmendra smiled and said emotionally, “I’ve longed for this Filmfare trophy for 37 years... but it always evaded me. Every year, I’d stitch a new suit and buy a matching tie in the hope that I’d be called to receive a trophy... then after a few years I gave up.”
It felt like a night of poetic justice as the man who handed him the trophy was one of the greatest Indian actors, his idol, Dilip Kumar. The legendary actor looked at Dharmendra fondly and said, “Whenever I get to meet with God Almighty, I will set before him my only complaint — why did you not make me as handsome as Dharmendra?”
For the millions of fans who never left his side, Dharmendra was more than just handsome. He embodied a cinematic era that valued heart, humour and heroism in equal measure. He carried his village within him even through decades of stardom and success.
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