Waheeda Rehman says she rarely spoke to Dharmendra on set, he agreed to do her film when all Bollywood heroes said no

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In an interview with Filmfare, she shared, “Years ago, I had met him backstage at a Filmfare Awards evening. Though he has a lovely He-Man personality, he was so shy and soft spoken. He came to me shyly and said, ‘I’m from a village, I would like to work with you someday.’ I said, ‘Inshallah, we will.'”

Dharmendra with Waheeda Rehman in Baazi. (Express archive photo)

Although they eventually worked together on a few films, Waheeda said that since both had reserved personalities, they rarely spoke on set. “It’s a funny moment, but the first film I co-starred with Dharamji was Khamoshi. It was a guest appearance as no other hero was willing to do it, so Hemant da asked Dharam to do it. The song ‘Pukar lo’. So you can see Dharam’s back in the song. We also did Phagun and Man ki Aankhen. He didn’t talk much. and I also was very reserved. So hum kum hi bola karte the (we rarely spoke),” she added.

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In his 65-year career, Dharmendra delivered more hits than Amitabh Bachchan or even Shah Rukh Khan, making him one of the most accomplished actors in Bollywood’s history. At the height of superstardom, Dharmendra, already married to Prakash Kaur, with whom he had four children (including Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol), welcomed his frequent co-star Hema Malini into his life as his wife. The 1980 marriage created significant controversy. The two eventually welcomed two daughters, Esha Deol and Ahana Deol.