Life comes full circle for Bobby Deol from Dharam Veer to Ikkis; voices Dharmendra’s younger version in swansong

Bobby Deol at Ikkis premiere; with father Dharmendra in Dharam Veer.

“If I’m inspired by anyone, it’s only my father. He’s something else,” said Bobby Deol in an exclusive interview with SCREEN earlier this year, when he completed 30 years in the film industry. His first film as a lead actor, Rajkumar Santoshi’s 1995 action romance Barsaat, was produced by his late legendary father Dharmendra’s banner Vijeyta Films. But a lesser known fact is that his debut film dates back even further, to 1977. Credited as Master Bobby, an eight-year-old Bobby played the young version of Dharam Singh, the character played by Dharmendra in Manmohan Desai’s period action drama Dharam Veer.

Life has come full circle for Bobby almost 50 years later, thanks to his association with Sriram Raghavan’s period war drama Ikkis, which marks the swansong of Dharmendra, who breathed his last in November this year. The late actor plays ML Khetarpal, the father of real-life young martyr Arun Khetarpal, who sacrificed his life in the 1971 Indo-Pak War.

Bobby has got a “Special Thanks” in the credits of Ikkis by the producer, Dinesh Vijan’s Maddock Films. That’s because he’s dubbed some dialogues of the younger version of ML Khetarpal. The son was visibly emotional at the premiere of his father’s final film held in Mumbai earlier this week. In order to pay his respects, he even chose to wear Dharmendra’s shirt for the occasion.

After watching Ikkis with his family, as Bobby exited the venue in his car, he waved at the paparazzi first. But as the camera lenses zoomed in, he was seen hiding his face and wiping his tears, sitting inside the car, overwhelmed by watching his father on the big screen for one last time. His elder brother Sunny Deol was also present at the Ikkis premiere, as both posed with their father’s poster on the red carpet.

On an edition of SCREEN Live last year, Bobby talked about how he landed his debut role as a child artist in Dharam Veer. “I was 5-6 years old. I always wanted to become an actor. My dad was doing Dharam Veer at that point, and he wanted a child who would look like him. A child who had big and thick legs, but he couldn’t find one. They kept getting kids who looked really weak,” recalled Bobby.

Dharmendra then looked towards Bobby and asked him if he’d play his younger version in the film. Bobby readily agreed. “They made this (black leather) dress for me overnight because I had to shoot the next day. I never wore an underwear in those days. When I was shooting, they made me wear this dress. I was like, ‘Why are they making me wear a dress?’ I asked Bhawarlal, who used to work with my dad, ‘Bhawarlal, mere paas chaddi nahi hai (I don’t have an underwear), how will I wear this?’ They got me a pair of shorts to wear under my dress. But, it was beautiful,” added Bobby, laughing.

Bobby even revealed that he asked his father for remuneration for acting in the film. But Dharmendra shooed him away, embarrassed by the director and the producer standing next to him. He was later given a bundle of 10,000 notes, which Dharmendra asked him to give to his grandmother and ensure they’re distributed equally among staff members. “I was so excited that I broke so many hangers in the house to show my sisters and aunts what I did in the film. I was on top of the world. When the film did Golden Jubilee, I went to the awards ceremony. They made a special award for me with my name on it,” recalled Bobby.

Another full-circle moment happened for Bobby this year when he played the chief antagonist in the Alia Bhatt-led spy thriller Alpha, which marks the directorial debut feature of Shiv Rawail, son of filmmaker Rahul Rawail, who launched Sunny Deol with the 1983 romantic drama Betaab. “Can you believe it? My brother’s first film was directed by Rahul Rawail! And you never even imagined that when Shiv would become a director, his first feature will have me. It’s like a full circle,” Bobby told SCREEN this year.