When Dharmendra Drunk-dialled Hrishikesh Mukherjee After Losing Anand To Rajesh Khanna

Dharmendra is one of the popular stars of Bollywood, who continues to spread his charm on the silver screen with his performances. Ever since his debut, he has won the hearts of millions of his fans with his good looks and acting chops. Did you know that he once drunk-dialled the famous director Hrishikesh Mukherjee for casting Rajesh Khanna in Anand, and not him? Let’s take a look at the incident in detail.

Dharmendra was once the top star of the film industry, who ruled the silver screens with his movies around the 70s. He was a bankable actor with whom every director wanted to work with. Once, an incident had left him furious. In 2019, when Dharmendra appeared on an episode of The Kapil Sharma Show, he narrated this incident. Dharmendra had previously worked with Hrishikesh Mukherjee in Satyakam. Once, when he was on a flight with the director and heard the script of a film and wanted to do it. Instead of him, Rajesh Khanna was roped in. The film was Anand.

This left Dharmendra angry. One day, while he was drunk, he called Hrishikesh Mukherjee. In the show, Dharmendra said, “I didn’t let Hrishida sleep the whole night. I told him, ‘You were going to give me the role, you told me the story, then why did you give him the film?’“ he further added that the director would request him to go to sleep and they would talk in the morning. He would hang up the line and Dharmendra would call him back and ask why Rajesh Khanna was given the role.

Anand further elevated Rajesh Khanna’s popularity at that time. He played the role of a patient suffering from cancer and was cast opposite Amitabh Bachchan. The exceptional movie continues to receive love even today.

Dharmendra was last seen in Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. He starred opposite Shabana Azmi, and their kissing scene in the film grabbed headlines. The movie is headlined by Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh. It also stars Jaya Bachchan, Tota Roy Chowdhury, Anjali Anand, Churni Ganguly, Nimit Das and many others. He also has Apne 2, Housefull 5 and many other movies in his pipeline.