Javed Akhtar remembered Dharmendra as he spoke to NDTV. He said, "We are shocked, the whole film industry is shocked. With Dharmendra's death, an era has come to an end. He was one of those giants. I feel very fortunate that when I came to Bombay, I was a clapper boy. I was 20-21 and he was at the pinnacle of his career. When you are a nobody, nobody behaves nicely, but Dharmendra was so nice and he was very warm with me. He was different from other people."