December ,1 2017
Veteran actor Dharmendra believes the film industry has
become a 'sabzi mandi' (vegetable market)nowadays with money becoming everything
for the actors in the current scenario.
Speaking on Aaj Tak Agenda on
Friday, the actor spoke at length on his take on the current film industry, the
fame he got in his career since 1960s including the different kind of roles he
experimented with, including comedy.
The 82-year-old actor says the film
world today is way different from what it was in his era as today actors are
ready to do anything for money.
"This industry has become a 'sabzi mandi'
today where you sell, buy and bargain for vegetables. The actors today are
dancing and singing for money, go anywhere where money is, get involved in oil
massages (pun intended). All for money. Money has everything now, something
which was not there in our time," said Dharmendra.
Dharmendra has worked
in more than 300 films in his career with hits like " Phool Aur Patthar",
"Sholay", "Yaadon Ki Baaraat", " Mera Gaon Mera Desh" and "Chupke Chupke" to his
credit.
He has worked with the creme-dela-creme of the film industry
including Nutan, Meena Kumari, Dev Anand, Hema Malini, Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev
Kumar, Amjad Khan, Jeetendra, Jaya Bachchan , Sharmila Tagore, Om Prakash, Rakhi
among others.
In his entire career Dharmendra was given one award by
Filmfare in the beginning of his career for the best talent and then a lifetime
achievement award in the end. Does he have any grudges?
"I went to
receive the lifetime award solely because of Dilip Kumar. When I got to know
that he will be presenting it to me, that was my award and went to get it just
so that the person, the actor I have looked upto since the time I thought of
becoming an actor, is going to give me an award," he said.
"There are
certain things that you have to do and I don't want to talk about as such when
it comes to awards. But, I can say that I never had that way on how you should
take the awards. I never had that shrewd, cunning brain to get it. I don't want
it and I am not interested in that! Your film is a hit, people, fans love you,
that should be your award atleast it is like that for me," Dharmendra added.
On being a Bollywood star at one point of time in his career, Dharmendra
said that he could have remained that way if he wanted, but again stressed that
he was never that "shrewd".
"I could have remained on that pedestal had I
wanted but I cannot be in that rat race. Not the one with that cunning mind of
not the other letting succeed."
Known for his comic timing in film like
"Chupke Chupke" and the in between one liners in "Sholay", Dharmendra believes
the genre (comedy) is itself the most difficult.
"Your comic timing has
to be perfect. If the timing is not good you will miss it. In comedy a lot can
come from within you. There were a lot of dialogues which were written by
Salim-Javed, but there were few dialogues or words that I added myself and they
worked like 'mausiji' in the suicide scene. It was not in the script but it
added to the scene. Comedy has the element of 'nasha' to it," he said.
Dharemendra will next be seen in "Yamla Pagla Deewana 3", which is slated to
release next year.