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Pankaj Dheer, who passed away in Mumbai on Wednesday, was best known for playing Karna in BR Chopra’s Mahabharat and in Chadrakanta. Pankaj was admired by fans throughout his life for his work in the mythological show, and this kind of adulation was quite cherished by Pankaj and his family, as they had battled through some difficult times. Pankaj had previously shared that his father, filmmaker CL Dheer, lost everything when he had to shelve a partially made film after the sudden death of actor Geeta Bali in 1965.
In an earlier interview with Lehren retro, Pankaj shared that his father, CL Dheer, joined the film industry in 1941. After assisting V Shantaram for a few years, he went on to direct and produce films like Bahu Beti, Rain Basera, Aakhri Raat, Zindagi, among others. He then recalled the tragic chapter of their life, which happened during the making of a film called Raano, starring Dharmendra and Geeta Bali.
Pankaj recalled that his father and Geeta were co-producers on that film, and had invested equal amounts of money in it. His father was also the director of the film. “Almost 6-7 days of work was left so Geeta Bali suggested that he could finish everything else, and finish the rest of her scenes at the end. The entire film was done and ready, just 3 days of Geeta Bali’s scenes were left. You can call it bad luck… Geeta Bali got infected with smallpox in Punjab,” he recalled.
Geeta was in Punjab with the rest of the crew and was brought to Mumbai (then Bombay) after her illness was diagnosed. “She couldn’t recover. She asked my father for a promise on her death bed that after I die, you will let go of this film, and my father honoured his promise,” he shared. Pankaj shared that after Geeta Bali’s death, Dilip Kumar and Meena Kumari came to see his father, and tried to convince him that he should shoot the rest of the film with Meena, and release it.
“Dilip saab suggested that I will come on the screen and plead with the audience that after the tragedy with Geeta Bali, you have to accept Meena Kumari in this role. But my father was insistent that this film is gone with Geeta. So all the money that was invested, it was gone. My father went into a shell after that. After this, our family went through a tough time,” he shared.
In another chat with Doordarshan, Pankaj had shared that he started working as a teenager primarily because he had to support his family after this tragic loss. The family lost a lot of money because of this incident, and could never fully recover.
Pankaj is survived by his wife Anita Dheer, and son Nikitin Dheer.
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