MUMBAI — Dharmendra, Bollywood’s original “He-Man” and one of its biggest stars, died here Monday after a brief illness at his Juhu home, according to his family. He was 89 and had recently been released from Breach Candy Hospital after being treated for age-related ailments, the police and hospital officials said.
Shock and grief as Bollywood legend Dharmendra dies
The news of Dharmendra’s death sent shockwaves through the Indian film community, where he was adored by generations of fans who grew up watching his movies looped endlessly on television. Crowds quickly gathered outside his home; security was tightened, and barricades piled up with floral tributes.
The actor’s body was taken to the Pawan Hans crematorium in Vile Parle in a flower-draped ambulance, and last rites were performed there with close family and some of Hindi cinema’s biggest names present. Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra’s co-star of “Sholay” and a longtime friend, turned up with his son Abhishek Bachchan to pay his last respects and joined Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, and Salman Khan in a silent guard of honor around the bier.
A tearful Hema Malini, flanked by daughters Esha and Ahana Deol, held fort inside the crematorium complex while sons Sunny and Bobby Deol led the rituals. For many of these fans, the death of Dharmendra meant not only the departure of an adored star but also the end of an era when machismo combined action and romance on its broad shoulders.
From ‘Sholay’ to ‘Rocky Aur Rani’: the six-decade journey
Born Dharmendra Kewal Krishan Deol in Punjab in 1935, he moved to Bombay (now Mumbai) in the late ’50s and went on to appear in more than 300 movies across six decades, from early crowd-pleasers like “Phool Aur Patthar,” “Anupama” and “Mera Gaon Mera Desh” through milestone titles like “Yaadon Ki Baaraat,” “Chupke Chupke” and the game-changing block-buster-to-end-all-blockbusters, “Sholay.” He later found a niche for himself in character roles in films such as “Life in a… Metro, “Apne,” the “Yamla Pagla Deewana” series, and 2023’s “Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani.”
The actor, who was awarded the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997 and the Padma Bhushan (India’s third-highest civilian honour) in 2012 for his contributions to film, has been deemed one of India’s handsomest leading men. Survived by his wives, Prakash Kaur and Hema Malini, six children, and a wide Deol film dynasty, he was once an MP from Bikaner in Rajasthan.
Old tributes highlight an ageless star.
The magnitude of the mourning has also brought back memories of how incessantly he was cheered during his lifetime. In a 2015 chat, actor Arjun Rampal declared in no uncertain terms that he was willing to forfeit his own “most handsome man” title and pass it on to Dharmendra, calling him “such a beautiful man,” a claim documented in an Indian Express profile of the two.
Even earlier, a long-form 2013 interview in Hindustan Times titled “Dharmendra unplugged,” portrayed him as emotional, funny, and disarmingly frank — a star who still considered himself the farmer’s son who struck gold. Reread in the wake of Dharmendra’s recent death, this compendium of bar-room brawls, on-set mischief, and open-hearted male love reads like a farewell letter from an age when heroes were required to have both muscle mass and emotions.
For thousands of fans who grew up with the screen icon, it feels like losing a family member — the uncle you’ve known all your life, whose jokes you hear in your mind’s ear, and that dashing hero who always seemed, bizarrely for him, a little shy in love songs. His movies will be in rotation on TV and on streaming queues, but for the man famously known as “Dharam Paaji,” this final show is over.
