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Dharmendra drunk-dialled Hrishikesh Mukherjee all night after being replaced by Rajesh Khanna in Anand: ‘I despised…’

In an old interview, Dharmendra reflected on witnessing the rise of Rajesh Khanna and later Amitabh Bachchan, saying that although he could easily have kept the spotlight to himself, he never cared to join the rat race.

3 min readMumbaiDec 4, 2025 07:05 PM IST

Dharmendra passed away at the age of 89.

Rajesh Khanna is often regarded as the first true superstar of Bombay cinema.

The late legend Dharmendra, who passed away last week, was a true-blue icon of Bombay cinema. An actor who entertained generations for over six decades. In a career spanning more than 300 films, he held the record for starring in the highest number of hit films in Hindi cinema. Dharmendra’s career unfolded alongside the meteoric rise of Rajesh Khanna and later Amitabh Bachchan, yet his popularity endured untouched. In an old interview with News Tak, he even spoke candidly about witnessing the “Khanna wave” and then the “Bachchan tsunami.”

Dharmendra said: “When Rajesh Khanna arrived, he triggered this whole phenomenon, he became a superstar. I watched it unfold; I had never chased any of that. Phir Amitabh aaye, toh ahista ahista ye ‘bimaari’ badhni shuru hogayi (Then Amitabh came, and slowly this ‘fever’ of competition started spreading). And if I had wanted, you know I gave hits for 30 to 35 years, I could have easily ensured that no one else dominated the headlines. Even today, I could appear in every third TV channel. But I never desired any of it. I’ve always despised the rat race.”

He then critiqued the culture of stardom and said: “I don’t know how much effort people must be putting into staying constantly discussed. What should I become so that people keep talking about me? How long will all this last? Even if one were to gain the whole world, what does it amount to?”

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In the early ’70s, there were also reports of a rift between Dharmendra and Rajesh Khanna. In 2019, while promoting his grandson’s film on The Kapil Sharma Show, Dharmendra revealed he had once been deeply upset upon learning that director Hrishikesh Mukherjee had chosen Rajesh Khanna, and not him, for Anand.

“Hrishida had told me a story on a flight, Anand. While coming from Bangalore, he said to me that ‘we were going to do this’ and ‘we were going to do that’. And later, I found out that the movie had started rolling with Rajesh Khanna in the lead role,” Dharmendra said. He recalled that upon discovering Khanna had been cast, he drunkenly called Mukherjee through the night. “I didn’t let Hrishida sleep the whole night. I told him, ‘You were going to give me the role, you told me the story, then why did you give him the film?’ He kept telling me, ‘Dharam, go to sleep, we will talk in the morning.’ He would cut the line and I would call him back asking, ‘Why did you give him the role?’”

Despite missing out on Anand, Dharmendra and Hrishikesh Mukherjee went on to collaborate on classics like Chupke Chupke and Guddi, both regarded among the director’s finest. For many, however, the greatest film Dharmendra ever delivered was Satyakam, also helmed by Mukherjee, a performance that remains a towering testament to his craft.

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