The veteran actor of Hindi cinema Dharmendra is one of those actors who has always won the hearts of the audience with his stellar performances. Dharmendra has given many blockbuster films in his career so far. He has left an indelible mark on the big screen with almost every character. Dharmendra was born on 8 December 1935 in Phagwara, Punjab. His full name is Dharam Singh Deol.
Dharmendra did his entire education at Arya High School and Ramgarhia School in Phagwara, but he could only study till matriculation. Then Dharmendra had decided to go to films. His aunt’s son Virender was a superstar and director of Punjabi films, but Dharmendra got a chance in Bollywood films through talent hunt. In the year 1958, Dharmendra participated in the talent hunt competition organized by Filmfare.
In this competition Dharmendra showed his acting skills and won the competition. After which he got a chance to work in Bollywood. Dharmendra made his Bollywood debut in 1960 with the film ‘Dil Bhi Tera Hum Bhi Tere’, but he got his real identity from the film ‘Phool Aur Patthar’. After this Dharmendra worked in many great films including Sholay, Rebellion, Pratigya, Dharamveer, Hukumat, Chupke-Chupke, Sita Aur Geeta, Aankhen and The Burning Train.
Dharmendra has always been a live hearted person from the beginning. Once he harassed the director of Anand film Hrishikesh Mukherjee by calling him all night for not giving him work in his film. Actually Dharmendra and Hrishikesh Mukherjee were traveling from Bangalore to Mumbai. During this, Hrishikesh Mukherjee told him the story of the film Anand. Dharmendra liked the story of the film and made up his mind to work in this film.
But Hrishikesh Mukherjee later chose Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan for the film Anand. Dharmendra was enraged by his decision. The day Dharmendra came to know about this, he harassed Hrishikesh Mukherjee by calling him the whole night after drinking alcohol that night. After which Hrishikesh Mukherjee later made Satyakam with Dharmendra, which proved to be quite a hit.
