The Eternal Hero: Dharmendra (1935–2025)

By Pickle November 24, 2025

From iconic hero to versatile legend, Dharmendra’s charm and talent lit up Indian cinema for six decades—leaving behind a legacy as enduring as his smile

A Tribute by Shoma A. Chatterji

Dharmendra, who left behind him 300 films as a hero and character actor, two wives, several children and grandchildren, is no more. He passed away of age-related complications at his on November 24.

He was one actor who shied away from interviews as questions mainly zeroed in on his personal life which he really did not like. But that does not make the slightest dent in his magnificent durability, audience craze and box office success as an actor who redefined the image of the hero in Hindi cinema for all time to come.

His predecessors, namely the great trio of Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand had gathered their personal images as heroes of their films. They were box office stars. But when Dharmendra appeared on the scene in 1960 in the film Dil Bhi Tera, Hum Bhi Tere which, however, did not do very well commercially, we were struck by the sheer handsomeness of the young man who symbolized everything a man should be – strong, masculine, sexy and supremely handsome.

He saw his first commercial success in 1961 with Ramesh Saigal’s Shola Aur Shabnam and followed it with hits like Mohan Kumar’s Anpadh in 1962 followed by Bimal Roy’s Bandini (1963) which won the National Film Award for the Bet Feature Film in Hindi.

His star image was completely distanced by his predecessors because he was different – funny, action-centric, extremely romantic and attractive. Indian cinema had never witnessed as handsome a man as he was before he walked in from his Punjab village, as the ordinary son of the village headmaster, shocking his parents when he said that all he wanted out of life was to become an actor like Dilip Kumar.

As tributes seep in opening the floodgates on the life and brilliant career of Hindi cinema’s handsomest man, we learn that he has given Indian cinema many more hits than Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan which comes as a bit of a surprise considering the commercial and international fame these two Indian actors have garnered over the years.

His magnificent looks somewhat neutralized his talents as an actor but if one looks back on his long career, he was perhaps more versatile and talented than he was credited for. His looks made us ignore his natural flair for comedy, witnessed as his best in Ramesh Sippy’s Sita Aur Gita and Sholay and many other films.

He was in full control in subtle and low-key characters as one witnessed in Bimal Roy’s Bandini and Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anupama and Satyakam. These three films underscore that Dharmendra was a director’s actor but most directors of mainstream films were constrained by his market demand and featured him as an angry young man-cum-lover-cum-action-hero-cum-macho good looker in most of his films.

The mass audience accepted him more in his super hit films like Aayee Milan Ki Bela with Saira Banu and Rajendra Kumar in a triangular love story that turned out to be a box office hit. He was just ten years into films but his trail of box office success remained unbeaten right through films ranging from Phool Aur Pathhar through Aye Din Bahaar Ke, Ankhen, Shikar, Aya Sawan Jhoom Ke, Jeevan Mrityu, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Raja Jani, Jugnu, Yaadon Ke Baraat, Dost, Pratigya, Charas, Dharm Veer, one of the few costume dramas he featured in alongside Chacha Bhatija, Ghulami, Hukumat, Aag Hi Aag, Elan-e-Jung, Tehelka reigning the Hindi screen right through the Eighties, a difficult task alongside the rise and rise of Amitabh Bachchan, Jeetendra, Vinod Khanna, who could have given him stiff competition in terms of box office success but they did not.

Looking back on his work as a hero, his fame was founded mainly on his sterlingly good looks but this in no way means that his acting talents were any less. If these were not noticed, it was because his looks made them secondary.

1973 was the best year of Dharmendra’s career with many successes. His first release, A. Bhimsingh’s action crime film Loafer, was a superhit with its songs, including “Aaj Mausam Bada Be-Imaan”, “Main Tere Ishq Mein”, “Koi Shehri Babu” becoming immensely popular among the masses and making its soundtrack one of the best-selling Hindi film albums of the 1970s

In 1997, he received the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to Bollywood. He was a member of the 15th Lok Sabha of India, representing the Bikaner constituency in Rajasthan from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

He worshipped Dilip Kumar because he confessed that though he had wanted to become an actor since he was a boy of 13, it was the film Shaheed he happened to watch that decided him that he would be nothing but an actor and Dilip Kumar was the hero of the film opposite Kamini Kaushal.

The feelings that evolved between these two matinee idols of the Indian screen representing two generations of actors were one of close brotherhood and mutual respect for each other’s work. In fact, the story goes that Dilip Kumar is reported as saying that when he walked into the other world, he would ask God why he did not make him as handsome as Dharmendra!

He managed his two families so well that there were hardly any focused clashes between his family with Prakash Kaur and his family with Hema Malini with who he recently celebrated 40 years of marriage. He never spoke of his relationship with his two wives and kept his personal life completely private. He was extremely proud of the thundering box office success of his two sons Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol while endearing himself to his two daughters with Hema Malini. No wonder he did not allow anyone to write his biography.