In the 1980s and 1990s, Mumbai’s film industry was plagued by underworld connections. Extortion calls, forced funding of films by gangsters and dons were common, and life threats were very much real. Many actors either paid protection money, or ended up working in movies produced by underworld-linked producers. Yet, there was one superstar who never bowed down. Dharmendra.
As the veteran actor passed away today in Mumbai aged 89, this is just one of many stories that show his rugged charm and raw courage in an industry which is seemingly too shallow and quick to compromise.
Actor-director Satyajeet Puri recently recalled how the underworld never dared to mess with Dharmendra.
Puri said that the underworld had a terrifying grip on Bollywood back in the 1980s and the 90s. “The underworld was at its peak then. One phone call and most actors would tremble,” he said in his interview with Friday Talkies exactly a month before the veteran actor’s passing.
“But Dharmendra and his family were never scared. If anyone from the underworld tried to threaten him, Dharam Ji would tell them, ‘If you come for me, the whole Sahnewal (his native village) will come from Punjab. You might have ten men, but I have an army. Ek bolunga aur truck bharke log Punjab se ladne aa jayenge. So don’t mess with me.’ And they never did.”
The He-Man of Bollywood had a reputation for raw courage for such encounters.
Puri, who assisted Dharmendra in the 1985 film Ghulami, shared a few more stories that explain why even gangsters thought twice before messing with Dharmendra.
During the shooting of Ghulami, a scene required a rider to gallop a horse up a palace’s marble staircase. A duplicate was ready, but Dharmendra insisted on doing it himself. “He only asked them to clean the area around the horse,” Puri recalled in the interview.
People on the film set did not notice the horse had urinated on the stairs, which made them slippery, said Puri. “Dharmendra, who always rode without putting his feet in the stirrups, started the climb. Midway, the horse lost footing and began to fall backwards. In a split second, Dharmendra slammed his left leg against the marble, and used his thigh strength to push both himself and the animal back upright.”
Furious at the negligence, Dharmendra stormed around the set looking for the assistant responsible. “He grabbed one assistant by the collar, but the guy wriggled free and ran. Then he went towards the horse to hit it, but stopped himself,” Puri said, adding, “In that moment, everyone at the set ran away, no one dared stay near him.”
Once he cooled down, Dharmendra’s first concern was the horse; he immediately gave the owner Rs 200, worried the animal might have been injured in the fall.
Satyajeet Puri also recounted another incident about the actor’s fearless nature. “A man once attacked Dharmendra with a knife in public. Within a minute, Dharam Ji had disarmed and pinned the man down,” he said. “Today actors move with six bouncers and gunmen. Back then, Dharmendra and Vinod Khanna would walk the streets freely, without any security.”
– Ends
