Amitabh Bachchan says ‘pehelwan’ Dharmendra held him tightly during Sholay’s death scene, he was in agony: ‘My acting was natural’

Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra in a still from Sholay.

Dharmendra passed away in November at the age of 89, and the actor’s last film, Ikkis, is up for release on Thursday. The film also stars Agastya Nanda and Jaideep Ahlawat, and recently, to promote the film, director Sriram Raghavan and the cast of the film visited the set of Amitabh Bachchan’s Kaun Banega Crorepati. Here, Amitabh remembered his late friend. The two worked in films like Sholay and Chupke Chupke.

“Ikkis is the last precious film that the great actor Dharmendra did for his millions of fans. An actor wants to practice his craft till his last breath, and my friend Dharmendra Deol did the same. He was not just a person; he was a feeling. And a feeling never leaves you,” Amitabh Bachchan shared. Sriram Raghavan added, “I am very blessed that he worked in my film and his last film. I think he is extraordinary in it.” Jaideep also spoke about the late actor and said, “I am very lucky because I had the maximum scenes with him. When he was on set, I never felt that I was with such a big star. It always felt like he was a part of the family.”

Amitabh then shared an anecdote from Sholay and remembered Dharmendra with a smile. He shared, “He had a quality, which I would describe as his physical quality. He was a pehelwan. I got to learn this myself. In the death scene, when I am in agony, it is because of him. He held me so tightly, I was acting naturally here.”

Previously, in a chat with Galatta Plus, Sriram shared that Dharmendra saw parts of the film before he got critically ill. “We had some dubbing with him in October. Before that also, he used to keep asking about how the movie was shaping up and when I would show it to him. I told him he could watch it before the dubbing, but he had some work, so he asked to watch it on another day. But, he saw around 50-70% of the film, he sort of liked it.”

He recalled that in his last days, Dharmendra faced some difficulty in dubbing. “At that time, I could see that he was having a tough time dubbing. I told him to get better soon. We had finished our work with him, I thought I would show him the entire film in a month. That is a big regret. He was really looking forward to watching the film. It’s like when 1942: A Love Story happened, RD Burman wasn’t there to get the accolades,” he said.