Dharmendra, the celebrity who combined uncommon sensitivity with gruff charm

An old woman trembles in the chill. She is noticed by criminal Shakti Singh, also known as Shaka. To shield her from the weather, the young man removes his shirt and covers her. The gesture of generosity at the center of a short scene in O.P. Ralhan’s Phool Aur Patthar, the 1966 movie that launched Dharmendra to stardom, became the cornerstone of the masculinity that the actor would represent—solid but gentle, bulked out but benign.

There were discrepancies in Dharmendra’s on-screen image that were hard to pin down. The attractive performer may entice a bird out of a tree by alternating between the blazing and the humbled, the irrepressible and the vulnerable.Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, a number of Hindi blockbusters, including comedies, action movies, heist thrillers, war films, and social dramas, rode on his big shoulders. He was never constrained by styles or genres.

Dharmendra roamed widely among a variety of artistic identities. He was equally comfortable working with Prakash Mehra (Samadhi), Manmohan Desai (Dharam Veer), and Nasir Hussain (Yaadon Ki Baarat) as he was with Bimal Roy, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, and Rajinder Singh Bedi (who directed him in 1973’s Phagun).

Over the course of a career spanning more than 60 years—his last film, Sriram Raghavan’s war drama Ikkis, is slated for release on December 25—he transitioned from macho to malleable, from rugged to romantic, from playful to profound, and from pulpy to philosophical across a range of films that together scripted an unparalleled sustained success story. It’s true that Dharmendra was incredibly popular. After the actor from Punjab became one of the most lucrative stars in the Hindi film industry by the mid-1960s, it withstood the assaults of two megastars.

Asit Sen and Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s gentle melodramas and Arjun Hingorani’s crowd-pleasing potboilers, which introduced the actor in Dil Bhi Tera Hum Bhi Tere (1960) and cast him in every film he made in the 1970s, were just two of the many films in which he continued to grow. Amitabh Bachchan shot to fame with Zanjeer and Deewaar in the middle of the 1970s. The irate young man made threats to overshadow all other male celebrities. The Dharmendra remained unwavering once more. His aura remained undamaged.

The actor actually collaborated with Bachchan on two of the biggest hits of 1975: Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Chupke Chupke and Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay.

Although his relationship with Hema Malini, who would become his second wife in 1980, is legendary, Dharmendra’s body of work was so diverse that there was never a time in his career when he was in danger of entering a rut in terms of the kinds of movies he starred in or the kinds of co-actors he collaborated with. He was a genuine movie star who didn’t require any clear distinctions to be recognized. Dharmendra wasn’t entirely alone until Phool Aur Patthar proved to be a significant turning point in his career. He had previously collaborated with Chetan Anand (Haqeeqat) and Bimal Roy (Bandini).

Asit Sen’s Mamta, starring Suchitra Sen and Ashok Kumar, and Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anupama, starring Sharmila Tagore, were Dharmendra’s two other noteworthy films in the year Phool Aur Patthar, co-starring Meena Kumari, debuted. Before the decade ended, he gave one of his greatest on-screen performances as an idealistic young man in Mukherjee’s Satyakam, which starred Sharmila. His career took off in the 1970s because to movies like Ramesh Sippy’s Seeta Aur Geeta and Raj Khosla’s Mera Gaon Mera Desh, which solidified his reputation as an action hero.

Hrishikesh Mukherjee acknowledged the star’s influence over the general public in Guddi (1971), when debutante Jaya Bhaduri portrayed a middle-class girl fixated with matinee idol Dharmendra.

Beginning with Seeta Aur Geeta and Raja Jani and ending with an extraordinary group of money-spinners, including Loafer, Jugnu, Jheel Ke Us Paar, Dream Girl, Blackmail, and Yaadon Ki Baaraat (all 1973), Dharmendra provided an unbroken run of hits in 1972 and 1973. Up until the late 1980s, he was a lead actor before switching to supporting roles. He appeared in Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya in 2024 and Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani in 2023. He was a star who never went away and most likely never will.