Dharmendra, Indian actor of the film Sholay, dies at 89
According to the CinemaDrame News Agency, Dharmendra, the veteran and beloved star of Indian cinema, has died at the age of 89. His death has been confirmed by Indian publications and by filmmaker Karan Johar on social media. Dharmendra had been hospitalized due to respiratory problems from 7 November and remained under care for several weeks.
The actor, who appeared in more than 300 films over six decades, was born in December 1935 in northwest Punjab to a farming family. As a teenager, he developed a passion for cinema and would ride his bicycle long distances to reach the nearest movie theatre to watch the films of Dilip Kumar.
Dharmendra won the Filmfare talent contest in 1958 and subsequently entered Bollywood. His first film was Dil Bhi Tera Hum Bhi Tere in 1960. In the decade that followed, he appeared in films such as Phool Aur Patthar, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Yaadon Ki Baarat, Chupke Chupke, and the cult classic Sholay.
In Sholay, Dharmendra played the proud Veeru, opposite Amitabh Bachchan as the calm Jai. Years later, he told ANI that he had recommended Bachchan for the role to director Ramesh Sippy: “This new boy, with the voice he has, will do something great.”
Dharmendra briefly entered politics and served as the Member of Parliament for Bikaner in Rajasthan from 2004 to 2009. In an interview with The New Indian Express in 2019, he said that politics “was not my true calling,” adding that he had “always been a patriot at heart”: “But cinema is where my soul belongs.”
