BELATED HAPPY BDAY LEGENDARY SUPERSTAR DHARMENDRA

One of the greatest legends of the industry and people's Superstar Dharmendra celebrated his 86th Birthday yesterday.

Dharmendra started his tinsel town journey in 1960 with a film called 'Dil Bhi Tera hum Bhi Tere' and it was a few films struggle till he shot to fame in the middle 60s. Though there were many successful films earlier as well like 'Shola Aur Shabnam' and 'Anpadh', but with a Blockbuster film with the then reigning superstar Rajendra Kumar - Aayi Milan ki Bela changed the fortunes of Dharmendra and catapulted him into a big league of known & dependable stars. But with a Mega Blockbuster Phool Aur Patthar preceding to a superhit Kaajal, pushed Dharmendra ahead than any other star, and industry & trade were banking on him to be the number1 star until there is tsunami called 'Rajesh Khanna' arrived.



Rajesh Khanna had seen the type of craze & euphoria which was never seen before or after and this craze also converted in numbers when Khanna gave over 15 consecutive successful films with many films doing historic business such as Aradhana, Do Raaste, and Haathi Mera Saathi. Khanna literally wiped out all-stars of the industry and was a reason for the retirement of many stars like Rajendra Kumar, Dilip Kumar, and Dev Anand but Dharmendra was the only star who survived the Khanna storm and it was him who shocked the entire industry when he pushed the legendary superstar Rajesh Khanna to Number2 in 1973 with 7 HIT films including 2 Blockbusters. Rajesh Khanna hit his rock-bottom and was never able to make a comeback and that's how the industry got their new number1 star - Dharmendra.

The journey would have really tough from here as becoming no.1 star is easy but remaining no.1 star is very very tough. The early 70s saw many talented newcomers joining the industry and one of them was Future Megastar, Amitabh Bachchan. Zanjeer was released at the same time when Dharmendra was the Topmost star of the nation and was his rejected film which made Amitabh Bachchan a star.

But Amitabh's journey to dethrone Dharmendra began in 1975 when universal Blockbuster and hugely acclaimed Bachchan film Deewar were released. It was a type of film which makes stars into Superstars. 6 months later, both Dharmendra and Amitabh starred together in the film which re-wrote the Box office history like no other film - Sholay and Dharmendra who was enjoying their superstar days were credited the most in Sholay initially.



Amitabh was proving a huge competition for Dharmendra with each passing year but Dharmendra was constantly giving hits, superhits, and Blockbusters. It was 1978 when Amitabh actually went ahead of Dharmendra as he delivered 3 Blockbusters in MKS, Trishul, and Don and pretty much ended the reign of Dharmendra as a superstar.

Dharmendra's run from 1966 to 1980 remains the most successful phase of any star in history as this phase had witnessed around 50 Hits and 75 successful films combined with mega Blockbusters like Phool Aur Patthar, Aankhen, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Sholay, Pratigya, and Dharam Veer.

Dharmendra also has the record of most hits in a year, a decade, or in a generation or all time. It could be said with 100% certainty that Dharmendra's record of most hits and successful films will remain untouched till the eternity of Bollywood history.

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