Dream Girl Hema Malini ruled the silver screen in the '70s and '80s. It's not just her professional life that created a buzz, her personal life was quite sensational too.
Many from the industry were smitten by this talented Diva but it was Dharmendra who won finally her heart.
Marriage proposal
In her autobiography 'Hema Malini: The Authorized Biography' Hema revealed that Jeetendra Kapoor and Sanjeev Kumar, two of the biggest superstars of the retro era, approached her with a marriage proposal.
Hema was first courted by her 1972 'Seeta and Geeta' co-actor Sanjeev Kumar f. A shy Sanjeev thought of seeking his friend Jeetendra Kapoor's help and asked him to talk to Hema about his love but in the process, Jeetendra fell in love with her. Hema and Jeetendra fell in love subsequently, but the duo's marriage plans ended after Hema developed cold feet and backed out at the last moment. Jeetendra then went back to his girlfriend, Shobha who is his wife today.
Sanjeev finally found the courage to express his love and proposed to Hema but he got rejection in return for his proposal... Rumours are that a dejected Sanjeev Kumar took to alcohol and later ended up losing his life to a heart attack.
Hema's soul mate
Hema Malini met her love, Dharmendra, who was 13 years older than her, on the sets of 1970 ‘Tum Haseen Main Jawan' and this famous Jodi of Veeru and Basanti ended up acting in 42 movies together.
Dharmendra bribed light boys
During a scene in 'Sholay' where Veeru is seen teaching how to use a pistol to Basanti, Dharmendra paid the light boys to repeatedly make mistakes during the shots so that he got a chance to embrace the actress.
Love won!
Dharmendra and Hema Malini converted to Islam as Dharmendra was already married and his first wife Parkash Kaur refused to give him a divorce. The couple married on 21 August in 1979 and post-conversion Hema was named Aisha Bi R Chakravarty and Dharmendra was named Dilwar Khan.
Their love story is said to have defied all odds and is perhaps one of the most iconic off-screen Bollywood romances.
The couple is now proud parents to actress Esha Deol and Ahana Deol.