Dharmendra: Bollywood’s OG superstar of all seasons

Dharmendra’s career is one of the longest and strongest in Hindi cinema. While many stars ruled for a few years and then faded, he stayed loved by the audience through every decade. On screen, he was powerful and stylish, but in real life, he remained the warm, down-to-earth man who never forgot his roots.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Rajesh Khanna became a huge sensation. His stardom was so big that it overshadowed almost everyone, except Dharmendra. Instead of copying trends or following big stars of earlier years like Dilip Kumar or Dev Anand, Dharmendra created his own style. He could do romance, action, comedy and drama with equal ease. Films like ‘Jeevan Mrityu’, ‘Chupke Chupke’, ‘Anupama’, ‘Satyakam’, ‘Seeta Aur Geeta’ and ‘Mera Gaon Mera Desh’ showed how strong his screen presence was.

Then came the rise of Amitabh Bachchan. Interestingly, it was Dharmendra who suggested Bachchan’s name for the role of Jai in ‘Sholay’. The 1975 film changed Indian cinema forever and helped launch Amitabh into superstardom. By then, ‘Deewaar’ had happened and Amitabh was the toast of the nation. But even as the ‘angry young man’ craze took over, Dharmendra continued to give major hits. His Veeru in ‘Sholay’ is still the most loved character. Post ‘Sholay’, films like ‘Dream Girl’, ‘The Burning Train’, ‘Ram Balaram’, ‘Dharam Veer’ and ‘Hukumat’ proved his calibre as a superstar. In 1987, long after most of his contemporaries had slowed down, he delivered seven of the year’s top 10 highest-grossing films, a record very difficult to match.

Dharmendra’s charm never aged. At 88, he won hearts again as the romantic grandfather in ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’, making elderly romance a big talking point. And his final film will be Sriram Raghavan’s ‘Ikkis’, releasing in December 2025, a fitting farewell to a superstar who shone bright in every era and every genre.