Sharmila Tagore and Dharmendra made for an iconic pair at the movies. They starred together in 8 films through the years giving us classics like Satyakam (1969), Chupke Chupke (1975) and more. Not many know that Sharmila and Dharmendra’s chemistry had launched two other high-profile projects which didn’t see fruition. They were to be seen opposite each other in Bimal Roy’s Chaitali, which was eventually made by Hrishikesh Mukherjee and where Saira Banu ended up playing the lead. There was also the ambitious Devdas project by Gulzar which was to feature Sharmila, Dharmendra and Hema Malini in the iconic pair of Paro, Devdas and Chandramukhi. But that project never saw light of day. After Dharmendra’s passing away today, we reached out to Sharmila Tagore to chronicle her thoughts on her dashing and handsome co-star and good friend. Without much ado, we bring you her words of love and affection…
Dharmendra was charming and so good looking
He was a man without guile, so charming and adorable. We even share a birthday. This birthday on Dec 8, I will miss him more. Uff! What a charming and good-looking man!
My first ever memory is shooting with him for Mohan Segal’s Devar (1966) with him, Deven Verma and others. The film had such wonderful music. Dharam was all heart, he would discuss the highs and lows of his life when we met. But we didn’t really meet socially like say I met Shashi (Kapoor) or Kaka (Rajesh Khanna). We would meet at industry functions say at Yusuf saab’s (Dilip Kumar) house to discuss the problems faced by technicians or sundry other matters. Those days the industry was so close knit, everyone showed up for one another.
Dharmendra and I had beautiful camaraderie
We did so many nice films like Anupama (1966), Satyakam (1969), Chupke Chupke (1975), Mere Hamdam Mere Dost (1968), right upto Raj Khosla’s Sunny (1984). Those days, film making was rather hurried and everyone worried about wastage of raw stock so we all focussed on work and tried to wrap up early to save the producer extra expense. But there was a beautiful camaraderie. We all looked out for one another.
Dharamji seemed to have touched everyone. His death seems strangely… so personal.
Also Read: Dharmendra and His Leading Ladies
