Why is Dharmendra delighted with renewing rishtey with  legendary  film-maker Bimal Roy’s family ?  by Chaitanya Padukone

Veteran yet young-at-heart superstar actor-producer-shaayar-poet  Dharmendra had mentioned to me during an interview  in the past, that he would always be indebted to iconic directors like Arjun Hingorani who launched him as a debut hero in “Dil Bhi Tera Hum Bhi Tere’ ( 1960) and  also to Bimal Roy who cast him in ‘Bandini ( 1963) in a very conventional lead role of a medical-doctor who falls in love with a female-prisoner Kalyani ( played by Nutan)

Life has come a full circle for Dharam-paaji who is delighted that after a long gap of sixty (60) years, he has renewed his relationship with legendary 'late' filmmaker Bimal Roy's family. As is known, Dharmendra's smart actor-grandson Karan Deol is now happily married to Bimal Roy's beautiful well-qualified intelligent great-granddaughter Drisha Acharya- Roy.Dharamji had said in the past, “ It was such an honor to be being directed by creative genius  Bimal da in one of his classical musical hit movies Bandini (1963). Since initially I was quite nervous and self-conscious Bimal-da used to help me a lot. Sadly, Bimal-da passed away too soon, three years later... There was so much that I learned from working with movie master Bimal-da in just one film. Today everyone still loves the evergreen melodious songs of ‘Bandini’ composed by legend S D Burman... But unfortunately in 'Bandini' there were no songs picturized on me.  It was basically a heroine-centric romantic patriotic-freedom-fighter theme movie with an unconventional climax,..But this movie ‘Bandini’ is an important turning point milestone in my acting career. Luckily my soulful song ‘Mujhko Iss Raat Ki---Aaawaz Na Do’ sung by Mukesh picturized on me in ‘Dil Bhi Tera Hum Bhi Tere’ (1960)  is still evergreen, “ recalled Dharam-paaji.Interestingly Dharmendra went ahead, later on, to work with Bimal Roy’s former assistant Hrishikesh Mukherjee and acted in memorable movies directed by ‘Hrishi-da’ like ‘Satyakam’, Anupama, and Chupke Chupke. Curiously enough, besides ‘Bandini’, versatile he-man hero Dharmendra has also acted with co-star Nutan in other movies such as ‘Dil Ne Phir Yaad Kiya (1966) and also in Dulhan Ek Raat Ki ( 1967)