Bimal Roy’s Telegram Brought Dharmendra Back to Mumbai

 My father Bimal Roy was one of the judges of the Filmfare talent show which Dharmendra won. He later tried looking for Dharmendra to cast him in Parakh (1960), a movie he made before Bandini (1963), but Dharmendra could not be located. It turned out that Dharmendra had gone back to his village in Punjab because it seemed his film career wasn’t taking off.

When my father wanted to cast Dharmendra in Ban­dini, he had to shoot a telegram to his house in Punjab. Dharmendra had done a few films before Bandini, but it was this movie, paired opposite Nutan, after which there was no looking back for him.

From what I have heard, my father was very fond of Dharmendra, and Dharmendra held him in a lot of respect. My father would, I believe, call him Dharmendu, and many would joke about this.

When I was making a documentary on my father, I interviewed Dharmendra, and he was very warm and affectionate and told me many nuggets. He told me that when Dharmendra bought his first car, a Fiat, he drove straight to Mohan Studio to take my father for a ride and get his blessings. After Bandini, my father cast Dharmendra again, along with Sharmila Tagore, in his next film Sahara, but he fell ill just two days or so after shooting began. My father wouldn’t return to the sets and died eventually from lung cancer. My mother [Manobina Roy] then took on the movie (which was released as Chaitali in 1975), but the script changed, as also the cast (Dharmendra remained, but Sharmila was replaced by Saira Banu), and the film eventually didn’t perform well.

More recently, our families have been connected through marriage (Dharmendra’s grandson Karan Deol married Drisha Acharya, the granddaughter of Bimal Roy’s daughter Rinki Bhattacharya in 2023) and I believe Dharmendra was very happy about this.

Something I always remember with much amusement is when I went to meet Dharmendra to invite him for my sister’s wedding. It was his birthday and I wished him happy birthday, and he was probably embarrassed by this and wished me back, ‘Same to you’.

–– As told to Lhendup G Bhutia