Bollywood journey of Dharmendra to become a megastar

Dharmendra Singh Deol, better known as Dharmendra is one of the most popular Bollywood actors. Megastar Dharmendra has worked in Bollywood for over six decades. He has done millions of role and Known for his wit, charm, smile and romanticism. It may surprise you that around the 70s, Dharmendra became the first Indian actor to be voted among the most handsome men in the world. He played many roles whether it was angry or romantic that why he is also a versatile actor.

As Dharmendra is Paaji of Bollywood let's refresh the good old golden memories of the Dharmendra in Bollywood.

Got the dream

Born in Punjab, Dharmendra always dreamt of becoming an actor for that he needs to go to Mumbai. This opportunity he got from  Filmfare's new talent hunt. Dharmendra participated in the contest and sent an application with his pictures. It seems that Dharmendra destiny called him Mumbai as he was declared the winner of Filmfare magazine's National New Talent award. Being the award winner, he was called to Mumbai from Punjab to work in the movie promised, and from here he first entered his city of dream.

The movie for which Dharmendra came to Mumbai was never made but during the contest, he met with many celebrities and became a good friend of them.

First debut

Dharmendra debuted with the Arjun Hingorani's 'Dil Bhi Tera Hum Bhi Tere' in 1960. He did a supporting role in the 1961 released film Boy Friend. Between the period of  1960 and 1967, he was cast as the romantic hero in several films. He got the action hero image from the film 'Phool Aur Patthar' in 1966.

It is difficult to imagine that the only actor of Bollywood, Dharmendra who has delivered seven blockbuster hits at the box office in a single year also faced several rejections and struggled hard to become an actor. It was also a time when people excused him by saying “to leave an office as they were not looking for a hockey player” after looking at some of his portfolio pictures. But in those days he also made a good friend such as Manoj Kumar.

Met his lady love

In all the best films of Dharmendra, 1975 released Sholay is considered one of the iconic film of Bollywood and also one of the most memorable for the fans of Hema Malini and Dharmendra. It is said that during the filming of 'Sholay', Dharmendra fell in love with Hema Malini. As the people knew that Hema Malini is the wife of Dharmendra but only a few may know that to marry Hema Malini, Dharmendra converted to Islam in 1979, as he was married to Prakash Kaur in 1954 at the age of 19 and she was not ready to grant him a divorce.

Before knowing Hema Malini, Dharmendra was linked with other actresses such as Meena Kumari and Saira Banu. It is said that Meena Kumari had a big hand to play in the beginning days of his acting career as at that time she was already an established star.

Awarded awards

Well, despite all these it was Dharmendra dedication, hard work and acting skills which had awarded him many awards such as in 1997, the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to Hindi cinema, in 2004  for the Best Contribution to Indian Cinema and in 2012 the Padma Bhushan award.