Dharmendra said yes to Hukumat in five minutes with a low signing amount, recalls Anil Sharma: ‘He even paid Rs 3 lakh to get the film on floors’

Dharmendra used to call Anil Sharma by the nickname “chhutke” (the little one). Though the actor hadn’t watched Sharma’s past work, his brother, Ajit Deol, had told Dharmendra that Sharma had made two very good movies. “He heard the idea for five minutes by the watch. Today, actors listen to a narration for three hours and still don’t get the idea. He told me, ‘There are jumps in this one. It can turn out to be a good film. Put a lot of hard work in. I’m doing the film,'” Sharma said on the podcast HZ Files.

Also Read | Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar pushes a bigoted vision, gaslighting the audience into accepting it as entertainment

The director couldn’t believe that a huge star like Dharmendra agreed to do the film of such a young newcomer. “I froze there. My eyes welled up. I touched his feet. He just blessed me and said, ‘Jeete raho‘ in Punjabi. That’s how my journey with him started. I didn’t have any money. My father gave him just a small token and said we’d pay more before the film begins. He was fine with it. He just thought that the story is good,” said Sharma.

Anil Sharma then recalled during the shoot, a massive crowd of 50,000 fans would assemble on the set in Nainital to catch a glimpse of Dharmendra. “He didn’t throw any tantrums. He’d even eat in the middle of all that crowd. He didn’t shoo anyone away,” said Sharma. But the gesture that’s stayed the most with him was when the star helped him out financially.

After his financier walked out of Hukumat, having paid only Rs 5 lakh instead of the promised Rs 30 lakh, Sharma’s shoot got stuck mid-schedule. There were several dancers and fighters who were brought to Nainital from Mumbai. “But I didn’t give up. I said if I shut down the shoot now, my career would also wind up. I told the entire unit the truth. I told them I’d make the same film I wanted to. There’d be no compromise on the location. It’s okay if we don’t get enough food and any alcohol or cigarettes. I anyway don’t drink,” recalled Sharma.

He decided that six to seven crew members would stay in the same room. It took two to three years for the film to get made. Some local residents also lent money to him, having seen how hard the unit was working towards making the film. “We just had one priority that we somehow arrange food because how do we even function without that?,” said Sharma.

Anil Sharma then revealed that once Dharmendra got to know of the dire situation, he handed over a bag containing Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh in cash. “This was Dharmendra. Who else would do that? You can imagine how much Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh of that time would cost today. He just saw that this guy is working hard,” recalled Sharma.

Also Read | Dharmendra told Anil Sharma ‘camera meri mehbooba hai’ in last meeting, asked him to write a role for his comeback

After the success of Hukumat, Anil Sharma and Dharmendra went on to collaborate in three more action films — Elaan-E-Jung (1989), Farishtay (1991), and Tahalka (1992). They teamed up again 15 years later for the hit family drama Apne, also starring Dharmendra’s sons Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol.