Bollywood’s evergreen hero Dharmendra is not called ‘Hi-Man’. He himself has done dangerous action scenes in many films. He did not like to resort to duplicate. This is a matter of era when there were no safety equipment while filming action scenes. But where is Dharmendra care about these things? Like a brave man, he used to clash with every dangers.
Mohan Sehgal announced a film with Dharmendra. Name ‘Duty’. Since the hero of the film was the forest officer, Dharmendra could not have a better choice. His deal and personality was perfect for this role. Anyway, by that time Dharmendra’s image had become of action hero and when Dharmendra used to beat goons, the audience was happy.
Artists like Rekha, Vinod Mehra, Nirupa Roy, Aruna Irani, Ranjit, Utpal Dutt were elected along with Dharmendra in duty. It was a remake of the 1973 Kannada film ‘Gandada Gudi’. Duty was released in 1979 and was a superhit.
One day Cheetah and Dharmendra’s fight was to be shot. The cheetah was really brought. There was a danger, so Dharmendra was advised to film this action scene with duplicate instead. On hearing this, Dharam Paji was enraged. Said that I myself will shoot this scene. The team of the film did not want to endanger their hero, tried to convince them, but Dharmendra did not bother and finally he was accepted.
The cheetah was imprisoned in the cage. There was also a trainer. Many people are present during the shooting. There were also heavy lights and cameras. There was a lot of noise. So the cheetah was a bit uncomfortable. Was growing up. Seeing his mood, the people of the unit were a bit nervous.
Everyone was ready for shooting. The leopard was released which caught towards Dharmendra and he attacked the hot Dharam directly. Dharmendra understood that Cheetah is in a very dangerous mood. He held the leopard’s neck on his side. There was chaos at the shooting site. The trainer did not appear anywhere.
Dharmendra did not loose the grip of his arm. They knew that if the cheetah was left, they went from the work. After a while, when the trainer arrived, Dharmendra left the leopard. But what is this, the work of the leopard was all done. All were surprised.
It is said that director Mohan Sehgal somehow caused the matter to be filled with fine. If this anecdote had happened today, many people could have jailed. However, all the strength and courage of Dharmendra became convinced that this powerful hero seen on screen is also unmatched in real life. It comes to fighting and dealing with dangers. That is why people gave so much love to Dharmendra and for years he was liked as a hero.
