MARRYING HEMA
Ram Kamal Mukherjee
The Hema Malini and Dharmendra romance is now part of romantic legend. If it does not get as much play as the Amitabh Bachchan–Rekha liaison, that’s probably because the couple settled into domesticity and produced a couple of daughters. But there was a time when doors were slammed, tears were shed, slaps were exchanged and Jeetendra was a contender.
Since the day [Hema Malini] joined the film industry, most of her heroes went lattu over her beauty. But she fell in love for the first and last time with only one person and that was Dharmendra.
While most of her co-actors were proposing to Hema, her mother strictly refuted the fact, stating it gossip. Hema’s mother Jaya was aware about Hema’s relationship with Sanjeev Kumar. In an interview to Stardust in June 1974, Hema said, ‘It’s become a habit with me to tell everything to my mom. I can’t remember having told her lies at any time. When I got involved with Sanjeev Kumar I needn’t have told her about it. Nowadays do these modern girls tell their parents all they do? But I didn’t hide anything from her. She had nothing to do with the break-up. There were other reasons involved—reasons which are too personal and complicated to be disclosed.’ So Hema’s mother was happy that her daughter was working with Dharmendra who was a loyal husband. Jaya thought that Hema would be safe. She miscalculated. The heart has no mathematical rules and what started as a mother’s gambit, turned into a daughter’s dilemma. Hema found herself head over heels in love with Dharam, and he, in his typical fashion, got emotionally involved with her. When Amma became suspicious, she raised a ruckus. But while she was successful in squashing the Sanjeev Kumar affair, Amma didn’t find the going so easy this time. Hema began lying to her mother (as any child in love would). She made secret clandestine meetings with him. Once she disappeared for a whole day with Dharam without letting anybody at home know about her whereabouts. That was her first defiant gesture and when she returned the next morning, everyone was too relieved to rebuke her. Still, Amma increased her watch over Hema. And Dharam and Hema had to make the most of the opportunities when they met on the sets. Which, since they were working together in innumerable movies, was often enough.
But whatever Hema did on the sly reached Amma’s ears. That’s when she probably decided to get Hema married. And just a year before that she had felt that Hema was too young to get married. Amma saw that Ravi Kapoor (alias Jeetendra) and Hema, working together in Khushboo and Dulhan got along famously. In fact, Jeetu was always interested in working with Hema Malini. Recently in Zee TV’s Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai show (Hema episode), Jeetendra revealed a story which was unknown to even Hema. In a video message, Jeetendra narrated his first experience of working with Hema, where he was unceremoniously thrown out of a film to be directed by Subodh Mukherji called Abhinetri. He was so excited at the chance of working with the dream girl that he even quit a film called Jeene Ki Raah with L.V. Prasad. But Subodh without telling him threw him out of the film, which came as a big blow to Jeetendra and he was shattered. At that time L.V. Prasad was kind enough to take him back in Jeene Ki Raah. In the same year director Ramanna signed them for Waris. During the shooting of this film, Jeetu had a huge crush on Hema. He tried to get ‘friendly’ with Hema, but she gave him a cold treatment. Goodnatured Jeetu didn’t persist, more because he was in his heyday then and it hurt his ego to chase a newcomer! But after that film Jeetu and Hema became good friends.
Over the years, they became confidantes too. He told her about his paramour Mumtaz and she told him about her fling with Sanjeev Kumar. It was an honest and healthy friendship … which ripened when they started working in Khushboo. Quite casually, Jeetu started mentioning to his friends that he had good relations with Hema, hinting that there could be something more in due time. Yet, it’s not as if he was not aware of the Dharam–Hema chakkar, because one day Dharam stormed on to the sets of a Jeetu–Hema film and dragged her to the make-up room, while Jeetu stood there like a mute spectator.
Meanwhile, Jaya Chakravarthy had a pep talk with Hema, which ended up with her convincing Hema that the best thing for her would be to marry Jeetu. Amma met Jeetu and his family and soon Hema started visiting them. Jeetu’s parents just loved Hema. The buzz was that ‘Baat pakki ho gayi!’ and Hema Malini would get married to her co-star Jeetendra. But Jeetendra confided in a close friend, ‘I don’t want to marry Hema. I am not in love with her. She is not in love with me. But my family wants it, so I might as well. And she is such a good girl.’
So it was a marriage of convenience, a family match, so to say. It had to be quick, before either party changed its mind. It had to be a hush-hush affair, and couldn’t be quick enough. An evening daily headline announced that Hema planned to marry Jeetendra caught Bombaywallahs by surprise. And while everybody was still wondering if it was yet another publicity stunt, a grief-stricken Dharmendra quickly recovered his wits. Without wasting a precious moment, he rushed to Shobha Sippy, the airhostess and Jeetu’s girlfriend, who obstinately refused to get out of his life. Together Dharam and Shobha took the next flight to Madras to make Mission Impossible, possible.
They both arrived at Hema’s Madras residence. Hema’s father tried hard to keep Dharmendra away from Hema. It was reported that he yelled at Dharmendra saying, ‘Why don’t you get out of my daughter’s life? You are a married man, you can’t marry my daughter.’ But Dharam was not to be turned away easily. Drunk, pleading and sentimental, he managed to get Hema alone in a room, even as everybody waited outside—the registrar, Hema’s family and Jeetu’s parents. They waited silently, as stiff and tense as relatives outside an operation theatre.
Inside the room, a tear-jerking session was enacted between Dharam and Hema. Dharam repeatedly begged Hema not to make this ‘big mistake’. While Hema and Dharam cried on each other’s shoulders, Shobha Sippy, not to be left out of the excitement, took Jeetu to task. Obviously in a state of shock and self-pity, she became very dramatic. When Jeetu told her rather bluntly that he was marrying Hema, Shobha lost her cool. An eyewitness account says, ‘She flew at him with the pent-up rage of eleven years. She slapped him and scratched him and Jeetu was too taken aback to retaliate.’ Just as Shobha’s histrionics ended, Hema came out of the room, puffy-eyed and tear-stained, looking like one on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Jeetu and her parents looked at her grimly. With her heart in her mouth but with an outward calm, she dropped the bomb, asking, ‘Can we wait for a couple of days?’
‘Nothing doing!’ declared Jeetu, backed by his angry parents. While the Chakravarthys looked on helplessly, Jeetu made it clear that if Hema wanted to go through with the marriage, it had to be now or never. While the registrar looked hopefully at Hema, she shook her head firmly. Jeetu got up with all the injured dignity he could muster and, followed by his humiliated and enraged parents, walked out! This happened in 1974. In March 1976, Hema spoke about the incident to Stardust. ‘I did not propose to Jeetendra. His parents made the proposal to me. I was confused. It was the most unexpected thing that has ever happened to me. They came over in the morning. By evening Shobha and all landed there and the matter ended there. But, as far as the press was concerned that’s where the story began!’ And Hema was not just right, but more than accurate!
The press started concocting stories with Dharam and Hema. They didn’t spare Jeetendra also. Jilted Jeetendra could have saved his face and his name by blaming Hema for the entire vichyssoise, but he didn’t. Even though he was made out to be the villain of the Hema–Dharam love story, Jeetendra suffered in silence. He refused to hit back. His lips were sealed where Hema was concerned. However, Jeetendra did not allow his personal prejudice to interfere with his profession. Being a thorough professional, Jeetu didn’t refuse a single film with Hema as his heroine. He did not sulk on the sets, rather greeted her cordially in public and put on a brave front for the world to see.
But love-blind Dharam was jealous. He stopped Hema from doing films with Jeetendra. (Though by then Jeetu was already married to Shobha, immediately after the embarrassing and farcical Hema episode in Madras.) Hema agreed to ban Jeetendra just to please Dharam. But soon Hema got tired of Dharam’s suspicious nature. She couldn’t understand why Dharam still refused to trust her. The fact was that over-possessive Dharam was still emotionally insecure where Hema was concerned. These doubts about his woman’s fidelity made him hit the bottle. His heavy demands on Hema increased. So much so that he started calling Hema in the middle of the night to see whether she was at home or not.
Hema was suffocated with his behaviour. She loved Dharmendra more than she loved herself. But she couldn’t take his obsessive nature and boozing. In her attempt to change him, she defied him. She started signing films with Jeetendra and the first in that series was Pramod Chakraborty’s Jyoti. The moment Dharam came to know of this and read Hema’s press interviews saying, ‘Jeetu aur mera pichle janam ka saath hai,’ he begged her to come back to him. Hema readily agreed but on her conditions. Dharam accepted each and every one of them. The first was to marry her and save her from the embarrassment. Dharmendra understood her plight and agreed to tie the knot. But marriage was yet to happen.
Jeetendra was put in an awkward position a second time. Dharmendra was quickly added in all Jeetu–Hema starrers. He personally saw that Jeetendra had no romantic scenes with Hema. Even Pramod Chakraborty had to sign Dharam and Hema for his Lajawab, so that Hema would complete his film Jyoti without any hassles. Jeetendra bore the incident silently. His wife was also furious. She felt that Jeetu should strike back. But Jeetu played it very cool. Gradually Jeetu started working with Rekha (Santan) and comparatively young actresses like Poonam Dhillon (Nishana). On the other hand, Hema remained faithful to Dharam. He was her only saviour, but he was still to marry her. Jeetendra still had regards for Hema as a colleague. So when he launched his own production he offered Hema the lead role in Deedar-E-Yaar. But Jeetu’s brother Prasan Kapoor fumed with anger and so did Shobha. Hema was unceremoniously replaced by Rekha in the film. Hema’s reputation was at stake. This was the time when Dharmendra went out of his way to explain it to the industrywalas, that people was reading more than they are expected to. ‘She had to get out of that film because Prasan Kapoor had started saying nasty things about her. He said that she tarnished her image because she married me. This loose talk harmed both of us.’
On 30 November 1979 after Hema and Jeetendra’s film Hum Tere Ashique Hain (a film based on Audrey Hepburn’s classic My Fair Lady), directed by Prem Sagar, was released and got enlisted amongst the top twenty films of the year, Dharmendra got alert. Not only was there a scene in the film where Hema had to plant a kiss on Jeetendra’s cheeks but also she cried in a scene without the help of glycerin, which upset Dharam all over again. He had no wish to lose her. He immediately tied the knot in May 1980. Hema finally got what she wanted.
Jeetendra maintained his silence. He refused to talk about Hema. He diplomatically and discreetly put the blame on the producers. ‘I really wouldn’t know why producers are not signing us together,’ he explained. ‘At the moment there aren’t any negotiations going on for a film with Hema. Hema is a professional actor, so am I. I wouldn’t mind signing a film with her.’ Today Shobha can only pity Hema. The venom has gone, so has the hatred. When asked how she felt about the Jeetu–Hema bad vibes, Shobha only laughed and said, ‘As long as my husband’s films do well, I am not bothered or worried about anyone. It is his lookout who he signs films with. He is a thorough professional. I have nothing to say about Hema but, where Dharam goes, I still talk to him wherever I meet him.’
The last film Hema and Jeetendra worked together was K.S.R. Das’s Mulzim, which released in 1988. Hema still maintains a cordial relationship with Jeetendra. In fact, [when] she had approached Jeetendra for her directorial debut Dil Aashna Hai, most of the trade people thought that Jeetendra would refuse to act under Hema’s direction. But he accepted the offer and let the wagging tongues of detractors get some rest.
Extracted from Hema Malini: Diva Unveiled.