4 min readHyderabadMay 1, 2026 09:55 AM IST
The grief of losing a life partner of decades is not something that comes with easy words. Hema Malini found herself reaching for them anyway at a tribute held in Dharmendra’s memory this week,reflecting openly on what his absence means and what his presence meant for the better part of six decades.
Standing before an audience gathered to honour Dharmendra at the opening of Lens & Legacy: Bollywood in Focus at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi on Thursday, she spoke about what it meant to have shared a life with him and what it now means to carry on without him.
“He was a great man. I am truly blessed to have been with him, but I miss him a lot now. He is no longer there, so I don’t know how I am going to cope with the rest of my life,” she said, visibly emotional.
Her words about his relationship with cinema were equally personal. She recalled how deeply he believed in the power of film to reach people, often saying that it was a means of speaking directly to the heart. As someone who watched him work up close for years, she said she could see that this was not a professional attitude but something that ran through everything he did. “He was very passionate about working in films and being in front of the camera. As his life partner, I could see how passionate he was, and he touched the hearts of millions of people because of his wonderful performances and his behaviour towards everyone. He has inspired so many people, including the younger generation, as an actor, as a friend and as a father,” she said.
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The man behind the legend
In a career that stretched across 65 years and more than 300 films, Dharmendra became one of the most commercially successful actors in the history of Hindi cinema and holds the record for starring in the highest number of hit films in the industry.
He was known for his physical screen presence and natural charm, earning the title of India’s He-Man across a string of action-heavy roles through the 1970s and 1980s. Films such as Phool Aur Patthar, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Sholay, Jugnu, Yaadon Ki Baaraat, and Pratigya defined the era he lived and acted in. Satyakam, directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, was widely regarded as one of his finest dramatic performances. Despite the scale of his stardom and the depth of his filmography, Dharmendra never won a competitive acting award during his career.
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A love story shaped by cinema
Hema Malini and Dharmendra first met in 1968 at a film premiere and worked together for the first time in Tum Haseen Main Jawaan in 1970. What began as an on-screen pairing slowly grew into something far more enduring off it. By the time they married in 1980, after knowing each other for over a decade, they had already become one of Hindi cinema’s most celebrated duos on screen.
Together, they appeared in many films, with their pairing producing some of the most memorable moments in popular Hindi cinema. Seeta Aur Geeta in 1972, directed by Ramesh Sippy, saw Hema Malini play a dual role to great acclaim, winning her the Filmfare Best Actress Award, with Dharmendra in strong support. Sholay in 1975, also directed by Sippy, remains the film most people associate with them as a pair. Dharmendra’s Veeru and Hema Malini’s Basanti gave Hindi cinema some of its most quoted scenes and their chemistry in the film felt entirely natural, possibly because by then, it was. Dream Girl, Raja Jani, and Dost were among the other successful collaborations that kept the pairing commercially relevant through the decade.
