Dharmendra, one of Bollywood’s biggest stars, dies days before 90th birthday

Veteran Indian film star Dharmendra died on Monday morning at his Mumbai residence after a brief illness. He was 89, passing just days before his 90th birthday on December 8, 2025. His last rites were held at the Pawan Hans crematorium.

The actor had been admitted to Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital on October 31 after complaining of breathlessness.

Several leading figures from the film industry, including his second wife Hema Malini, co-stars Amitabh Bachchan and Salman Khan, and actors Sanjay Dutt and Aamir Khan, attended the cremation amid heavy security.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta were among political leaders who posted condolence messages on social media.

Dharmendra’s final screen appearance will be in Sriram Raghavan’s war drama Ikkis, featuring Agastya Nanda, the grandson of Amitabh Bachchan. The film is scheduled for release on December 25, 2025.

Best known as Veeru, the lovable petty criminal in the 1975 blockbuster Sholay, Dharmendra appeared in more than 300 films, many of them major hits, captivating audiences for decades. Songs featuring him frequently topped music charts, and his romance and marriage with Hema Malini often made headlines.

Dubbed the “original He-Man of Bollywood” and “Garam (hot) Dharam”, the actor regularly featured on global lists of “most handsome men” at the height of his career. Female fans were known to sleep with his photographs under their pillows. Bollywood stars also praised his looks — actress Madhuri Dixit once described him as “one of the most handsome people I have seen on screen”, Salman Khan called him the “most beautiful looking man” and Jaya Bachchan referred to him as “a Greek God”.

Dharmendra often said he was “embarrassed” by praise for his appearance and attributed it to “nature, my parents and my genes”.

Born on December 8, 1935, in Nasrali village in Punjab’s Ludhiana district to a middle-class Jatt-Sikh family, he was named Dharam Singh Deol by his schoolteacher father. In a 2018 interview with BBC Hindi, he said his father wanted him to focus on academics, but he fell in love with films early in life and longed to become a hero.

Actress Sharmila Tagore, speaking to NDTV’s Vishnu Som, recalled filming the iconic Chhalka Yeh Jaam song from Mere Hamdam Mere Dost.
“I was supposed to attend a Test match and was scheduled to leave for Kolkata. I requested him to extend the shoot, and he was so gracious,” she said, noting how the team accommodated her schedule.
“We shot at 7 AM, and then I went straight to the airport. I still remember his generosity,” Tagore added.

Actor Anil Kapoor paid tribute on X, writing: “Dharam ji was hard to capture in one sentence…Hero, Father, the OG Punjabi, a man who was as keenly emotional as he was mischievous, larger than life but also relatably human…” (NDTV and BBC News)