Dharmendra

Dharmendra (born December 8, 1935), childhood name Dharam Singh Deol was born in village Dangon, Phagwara, Punjab. He is a legendary Indian actor who acted in successful Hindi films between 1962 and present. Dharmendra has been married twice and his children from first wife Prakash Kaur (most notably Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol) are also successful actors. He has two daughters, Esha Deol and Ahna Deol, from Hema Malini, his second wife who is also an actress. Dharmendra Deol is a romantic star known as Garam Dharam in Bollywood.

His original name is Dharmendra Kewal Krishn Deol. He is famous by his nickname as Dharam and Dharminder. He got married at the age of 19 and took up a job with an American Drilling Company boring tubewells. Dharmendra started his career for debut film 'Railway Platform.' He was signed by Arjun Hingorani for Dil Bhi Tera and Hum Bhi Tere.

The heroic acting in his films Phool Aur Patthar, Jugnu,and Loafer was simply remarkable. He gave an unforgettable performance in the role he played as Veeru in Sholay (1975). Phool Aur Patthar (1966) finally made Dharmendra a star. Dharmendra received the life time achievement award in 1997 from Filmfare, for the splendid performance during his times and wonderful career in Bollywood. Dharmendra remained a top Hindi film star for three decades. Dharmendra was awarded the Filmfare Life Achievement Award for his contribution to Indian Cinema. Dharmendra has successfully launched both his sons Sunny in film 'Betaab' in 1983 and Bobby in film 'Barsaat' in 1995 as leading men and today his daughter Esha Deol too is acting in films. Dharam's nephew Abhay deol has already made his debut with "Socha Na Tha" with Ayesha Takia.

Most of Dharmendra's earlier films were soft romantic films which presented a secularized Hindustani version of Bengali literary stereotypes. He mainly played the romantic hero and was voted as one of the most good looking men in the world in the 1960s. Dharmendra rose to fame as an Indian actor who appeared in more than 200 Hindi films since the early 1960s.

Dharmendra is considered the most successful star of Bollywood along with Amitabh Bachchan. He has maximum number of hit films in Bollywood and is considered a living legend.

Dharmendra produced a film Apne along with his sons. The film is a hit because of his acting as an actor and producer of this film.

He produced another film Barsaat (1995) as a launchpad for his son Bobby.

Dharmendra became a Member of Indian Parliament (14th Lok Sabha - 2004-2009) from Bikaner constituency in Rajasthan on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket.