When Hema Malini said Dharmendra’s dad was very fond of her, would come to her home and arm-wrestle her father: ‘He would say…’

Hema Malini and Dharmendra got married in 1980 but at the time, he was already married to Prakash Kaur and they had four kids together – Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Ajeeta Deol and Vijayta Deol. So, the marriage between Hema and Dharmendra was a low-key affair. Hema’s biography, Hema Malini: Beyond the Dream Girl by Ram Kamal Mukherjee, mentions that this was a traditional Tamil wedding that was held at her brother’s house.

In the book, Hema recalled that her father-in-law, Dharmendra’s father Kewal Kishan Singh Deol, was very fond of her and her family and would often visit her father and brother. She recalled, “He would drop by and meet my father or brother for chai (tea). Instead of shaking hands he would arm-wrestle them, and after defeating them he would jokingly say, ‘Tum log ghee-makkhan-lassi khao, idli aur sambhar se taqat nahi aati’ (You guys should eat ghee, butter and lassi. Idli and sambhar won’t give you strength).”

She further recalled, “My father would join in the laughter. He (Dharmendra’s father) was a very jovial person.”

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Hema has previously spoken about how her father VS Ramanujam Chakravarthy was not in favour of her and Dharmendra’s relationship. While shooting for the film Charas in Malta, her father and the two actors were supposed to travel in the same car to the location. Her father would make it a point to sit in the middle of Dharmendra and Hema. In an appearance on Rajat Sharma’s Aap Ki Adalat, Hema recalled that her father wasn’t supportive of the relationship because Dharmendra was already married.

Kewal Kishan Singh Deol was a school teacher in Punjab before he moved to Mumbai to live with his son who, by then, had become a movie star. Kewal wasn’t very supportive of Dharmendra’s decision to be in the movies in the early days but was very proud when his son made it big.