If one has to describe the veteran actor Dharmendra in one word, it would be ‘zinda dil.’ The Sholay star, who enjoys life to the fullest, is unapologetic about being a binge drinker and has often spoken about drinking in between shots in his heydays. After all, can anyone else have done the famous suicide scene in Sholay better than Dharmendra? During an earlier appearance on Aap Ki Adalat, when asked about why he couldn’t quit drinking, he replied by saying that he is an extremist. “Beech mein 6 mahine ke liye chor deta tha, badminton khelta aur sweat out karta tha aur phir shuru ho jata hoon. Main thoda extremists hoon (I would stop drinking for 6 months, play badminton, sweat it out and then go back to drinking again),” he shared.
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The 88-year-old also reminisced about a funny incident from the sets of his film, Aag Hi Aag, involving his co-star Moushumi Chatterjee, who caught him drinking some chilled beer. “Beer peene ka dil kiya dopahar ko (One afternoon, I felt like having some beer),” said Dharmendra, adding, “I had told them to make the beer frothy so that it looked like lassi.” When Moushumi saw him drinking, she got curious. “Aye, Dharmendra, yeh kya peeta hai? (Dharmendra, what are you having?” I lied by saying that I was having lassi.” She knew I was lying so she asked me, “Thodi mujhe bhi dena (She knew I was having my beer so she asked for some).” I burst out laughing and admitted that I was enjoying my beer. “Beer peene se kuch nahin hota (Beer doesn’t harm you),” he recalled.
Amjad Khan, Sanjeev Kumar, Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan on the sets of Sholay. (Photo: Express Archives)
The actor also shared that he would steal beers from his cameraman on the sets of Sholay. “Our cameraman, Jim, who was working with us on Sholay, had the habit of carrying 5-6 bottles of beers. I would sit behind him and secretly drink from his stock. When the people from the production told him that he had consumed 12 bottles, baffled, he reacted, ‘How did it happen? I don’t know!’ One day he caught me. You should enjoy life..,” he chuckled. On being labelled as the biggest boozer in Bollywood, he reacted, “Mera liver bahot strong hai!”
Dharmendra and Hema Malini
According to a 2010 report published DNA, after a health scare, the actor had promised his daughter Esha Deol that he would not touch alcohol again. He said that that was no power on earth could make him take to the bottle again, even if it meant doing less convincing drunken sequences than his suicide act in Sholay, for which the star had taken several large pegs. The report also stated that, the same year, for a scene in Yamla Pagla Deewana film, Dharmendra and his two sons, Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol, were required to do a drunken boys’ night out scene, but he refused to consume any alcohol for it. He says, “My days of masti are over. I wake up early, do yoga and meditate.” Samir Karnik, who directed the film, said, “Sunny has always been a teetotaler, but it was surprising to see Dharamji ordering apple juice for the scene. The only one who really drank in the sequence was Bobby Deol.”
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Earlier this year, Dharmendra got injured while attending at a family function in Udaipur, Rajasthan. Talking to indianexpress.com, a source close the Deol family had told Indianexpress.com, “Dharmendra sir injured his leg some days back. There is nothing to worry about, he is in fact on the road to recovery. At this age, a person is prone to it but he is doing well, he is taking it slow. He was at a family function in Udaipur where he hurt himself. He is resting and will be back at work soon too. Would request all his fans to keep wishing well for him.”
Dharmendra was last seen in Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, starring Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Jaya Bachchan and Shabana Azmi.
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