An actor, a beloved star, a family man, a farmer, Dharmendra was all these things, and perhaps some more. A lesser known aspect of the He-Man of Bollywood's life was that he was also a poet. And not just any poet, he was a shayar.
Dharmendra, who would have been 90 today, was a treasure trove of old-school Hindi cinema, filmmaking, nostalgia, and used to write shayari, poems in Urdu.
Sriram Raghavan, director of the actor's swansong Ikkis, attests to that.
"Whenever he used to be on set, there used to be a whole group around him. He would regale us with stories or shayari (Urdu poems). He used to write wonderful poems in Urdu," the filmmaker, who also worked with Dharmendra in 2007's Johnny Gaddaar, told NDTV in an interview.
Not only that but the makers of Ikkis have also incorporated one of Dharmendra's poems in the war drama, which will release on December 25, a month after his death.
After Dharmendra died on November 24 following a brief illness at the age of 89, production banner Maddock Films shared a clip from Ikkis in which the film icon is seen reciting his own poem titled Pind Apne Nu Jaanwa.
In the interview with NDTV, Sriram Raghavan said, "We have also used one of his little poems in our film."
"I hope some of those poems are published," added the filmmaker.
In a 2018 interview, Dharmendra said he was working towards compiling his poetry.
"I'm trying to get my poetry made into a video. I want the viewers to know the reference to the poems that I will share with them. So that everyone enjoys it. I'm a shayar. I write about what people feel. Poetry cannot be enjoyed if a poet talks about artifice. But my shayari is universal," he had said at the time.
Dharmendra will be seen one last time on the big screen in Ikkis, in which he plays the role of Brigadier ML Khetarpal, the father of 1971 war hero Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal, essayed by Agastya Nanda.
