The Dharmendra Historic

 Article Written By - Mujahir

 LEGENDARY SUPERSTAR DHARMENDRA AT 86 - STAR OF THE BIGGEST HIT OF THE INDIAN CINEMA !

One of the greatest legends of the industry & people's Superstar Dharmendra is celebrating his 86th Birthday today. 

Below are the highlights of his successful-long-career.

Dharmendra started his tinsel town journey in 1960 with a film called Dil bhi tera hum bhi tere and it was a few films struggle till he shot to fame in middle 60s. Though there were many successful films earlier as well like Shola aur Shabnam and Anpadh but with a Blockbuster film with the then reigning superstar Rajendra kumar - Aayi Milan ki Bela changed the fortunes of Dharmendra and catapulted him into a big league of known & dependable stars. But with a Mega Blockbuster Phool Aur Patthar preceding to a superhit Kaajal, pushed Dharmendra ahead than any other star and industry & trade were banking on him to be the number1 star untill there is tsunami called 'Rajesh Khanna' arrived. Rajesh Khanna had seen the type of craze & euphoria which was never seen before or after and this craze also converted in numbers when Khanna gave over 15 c successful films in short span of 3 years with many films doing historic business such as Aradhana, Do Raaste and Haathi Mera Saathi. Khanna literally wiped out all stars of the industry and was a reason for the retirement of many stars like Rajendra kumar, Dilip kumar and Dev anand but Dharmendra was the only star who survived the khanna storm and it was him who shocked the entire industry when he pushed the legendary superstar Rajesh khanna to Number2 in 1973 with 7 HIT films including 2 Blockbusters. Rajesh khanna hit his rock-bottom and never able to make a comeback and that's how industry got their new number1 star - Dharmendra.

The journey would have really tough from here as becoming no.1 star is easy but remaining no.1 star is very very tough. The early 70s saw many talented new-comers joining the industry and one of them was Future Megastar Amitabh Bachchan. Zanjeer released at the same time when Dharmendra was the Topmost star of the nation and was his rejected film which made Amitabh Bachchan a star. But Amitabh's journey to dethrone Dharmendra begun in 1975 when univeral Blockbuster and hugely acclaimed Bachchan film Deewar released. It was a type of film which makes stars into Superstars. 6 months later, both Dharmendra and Amitabh starred together in the film which re-wrote the Box office history like no other film - Sholay and Dharmendra who was enjoying his superstar days, credited the most in Sholay initially. Amitabh was proving a huge competition for Dharmendra with each passing year but Dharmendra was constantly giving hits, superhits and Blockbusters. It was 1978 when Amitabh actually went ahead than Dharmendra as he delivered 3 Blockbusters in MKS, Trishul and Don and pretty much ended the reign of Dharmendra as a superstar. Though even after that Dharmendra was giving hits and success regularly and was a formidable no.2 star untill the better no.2 star Jeetendra pushed down Dharmendra to no.3 and later better no.3 Mithun Chakraborthy pushed him to No.4. 

Dharmendra's run from 1966 to 1977 remains the most succesful phase of any star in the history as this phase had witnessed around 50 Hits and 75 successful films combined with mega Blockbusters like Phool Aur Patthar, Aankhen, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Sholay, Pratigya and Dharam Veer. Dharmendra also has the record of most hits in a year, decade or in a generation or all time. It could be said with 100% certainty that Dharmendra's record of most hits and successful films will remain untouched till the eternity of Bollywood hisstory.