Actor Bobby Deol, the son of veteran actor Dharmendra, recently opened up about playing his father’s younger self in the iconic 1977 film Dharam Veer. During the third edition of Indian Express’ SCREEN Live, Deol recalls being asked by his father if he wanted a role in the Manmohan Desai directorial.
“I was 5-6 years old. I always wanted to become an actor. My dad was doing Dharam Veer at that point, and he wanted a child who would look like him. A child who had big and thick legs, but he couldn’t find one. They kept getting kids who looked really weak. Then he thought let me ask my son. He asked me, ‘Tu meri film mai acting karega, mere bachpan ka role karega? (Will you act in my film and play my childhood role?)’ I said, ‘Haan karunga (Yes, I will do it).’ When you are a child, you don’t have any inhibitions, you don’t have any fear, you just think life is beautiful,” he recalled.
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The Humraaz actor confessed that he never used to wear underwear when he was young, so he was baffled when they made him wear a black dress for the scene. “I was like, ‘Why are they making me wear a dress?’ I asked Bhawarlal, who used to work with my dad, ‘Bhawarlal, mere paas chaddi nahi hai (I don’t have underwear on)’, how will I wear this?’ They got me a pair of shorts to wear under my dress. But, it was beautiful.”
The 55-year-old also recalled asking his father to pay him for the role in Dharam Veer. “I did the scene and asked my dad, ‘Where is my money? I worked, I want my money.’ He said, ‘Aa mai deta hu, tu chup kar (Okay, I’ll give. You keep quiet)’. He didn’t know what to say as the film’s producer and director were standing right there. I sat in the car, he gave me a bundle of 10,000 notes, and he said, ‘Go give it to your grandmother and see to it that it is distributed among the staff members’,” he said.
Once Deol did as he was told, he excitedly re-enacted the scene he did for the film at home for his family. When the film did Golden Jubilee, I went to the awards ceremony. They made a special award for me with my name on it,” Bobby added.
Recently, Bobbly Deol starred, alongside Suriya, in Siva’s Kanguva which failed at the box office. In October, Deol was announced to appear in Vijay’s final film, tentatively titled Thalapathy 69, The film is slated for an October 2025 release.
