For six years we cut 80-kg cakes, and this year we planned a 90-kg cake as Dharmendra would have turned 90’ fans gather in Mumbai to pay tribute
‘For six years we cut 80-kg cakes, and this year we planned a 90-kg cake as Dharmendra would have turned 90’ fans gather in Mumbai to pay tribute.
Fadnavis said that the actor, popularly known as Bollywood’s “He-Man," will always remain in the hearts of film enthusiasts. (Express Archive) Carrying a photograph of him with his favourite actor, Ashok Shaini, 60, had been standing outside the Pawan Hans Crematorium in Vile Parle in Mumbai for hours, He had come from Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh as a 22-year-old and stood outside the actor’s house seeking a job.
He remembers that day in 1987. “Dharmendra ji was going out and when he saw me standing at his gate, he stopped. I told him I need a job. I had come without any reference but he hired me as a cook,” says Shaini who continued working there till 1992. Shaini learnt about the actor’s death when his daughter called him from Delhi in the afternoon.
Outside the crematorium, there was a crowd of fans and acquaintances of the actor, sharing stories and their grief. One of them was Shashikant Sharma, who has been celebrating the actor’s birthday for years now. For the last six years, he has been buying a cake weighing over 80 kg for the actor’s birthday. “This year we were going to order a 90-kg cake,” says Sharma. Dharmendra would have turned 90 in December.
Sharma is part of a group of about 350 fans of Dharmendra across the world. “Our fan club is known on social media as ‘Dharmendra Ek Anmol Ratan International Fans Club,” says Sharma who lives in Bangalore and visits Mumbai often.
The crowd swelled up outside the crematorium after news of Dharmendra’s death spread. According to a senior officer posted at the actor’s bungalow, the actor died in the wee hours of Monday. “Once the initial rituals were completed in the house, the Juhu police were informed. When the police team reached the bungalow around 12.30pm, the family was leaving with the actor’s body for the crematorium ground at Pawan Hans,” added the officer.
Among the actors who came to pay their final respects were Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan and Shabana Azmi.
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