Legendary actor Dharmendra is currently hospitalized. Amidst death rumours, his family has clarified that the actor is stable and under observation. Hema Malini also urged fans to pray for his speedy recovery. Dharmendra isn’t just known for his onscreen aura but the actor is loved for his candidness off-screen. One has seen him on social media. He often shares anecdotes from his past movies and co-stars. Not to mention, his candid videos giving fans a glimpse into his life are a treat for them. While he’s known to be full of love, the actor can never tolerate disrespect against people he loves and values, even when he was younger and he wouldn’t mind displaying his anger if that happened. Here’s recalling one such incident.Dharmendra was once at a party and worked with Sanjay Khan in ‘Haqeeqat’ in the year 1965. Sanjay was a newcomer that time and Dharmendra was always known to host great parties. At one point, he arranged a small party for the film’s cast and crew just so that everyone could mingle with each other. Reportedly, that time Sanjay was drunk and he started talking ill about actors from the industry. Dharmendra tolerated it and kept telling him with love, making him understand that he should not talk all this. But things escalated when Sanjay started bad mouthing veteran actor Om Prakash. For those not in the know, Dharmendra and Om Prakash have shared screen space in the iconic ‘Chupke Chupke’. When Sanjay started disrespecting Om Prakash, Dharmendra couldn’t tolerate it and slapped him.Later, Dharmendra felt sad about it and visited Sanjay’s brother Feroz Khan’s house to apologize to him for this. But Feroz felt that Dharmendra was right. He said, “He should be punished for his actions. You did it right. If I were in your place, I would have done the same.”However, years later, when Sanjay Khan was hospitalized after his unfortunate accident on ‘Tipu Sultan’ sets when fire broke. Sanjay was badly injured and in coma, many thought he would die. 52 people on the set had died in the fire. That time when Dharmendra visited Sanjay in the hospital, he was in tears. Khan spoke about it in his autobiography, ‘The Best Mistakes of My Life’, “Two months after I came back from coma, I saw a stream of VIPs from Delhi and Dharmendra. Those people were watching me with pathetic looks, I was telling them I’ll meet them soon, but they must’ve thought I was a goner and were expressing sympathies with me. But Dharmendra was crying like a boy. He kept on saying, ‘My friend, I’m with you.’ That was the friendship I shared with him. I shared an extremely long and close friendship with Raj Kapoor and Sanjeev Kumar, among others.”
