Dharmendra didn’t allow Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol to attend star kids’ birthday parties, Bollywood bashes: ‘Filmi duniya badi…’

With Dharmendra, Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol

Veteran superstar Dharmendra, who passed away on Monday at the age of 89, wanted to protect his children from the film industry. Nevertheless, three of his children – Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol and Esha Deol – became leading actors of Hindi cinema. In fact, Dharmendra had even expressed his anger after Esha made her Bollywood debut. In an interview earlier this year, Bobby had shared that the Sholay star did not allow him and Sunny to attend Bollywood parties and never wanted them to mingle with people in the film industry.

Speaking to Instant Bollywood in April 2025, the Animal actor said, “Whenever it was a star kid’s birthday, my father would never leave us. Now I tell him that you shouldn’t do that. But at the time, I felt it was an important thing. But then it became a habit and I didn’t think much about it. My father never wanted us to get involved in the film industry because the film industry is bahut banawati hai. Toh wo chahte the ki humey banawatipan se kapi rakhe.”

Bobby said, “We never had an environment like the movie industry. We had a simple house. We never had parties at home, we never talked about movies. We lived like normal people. We were never influenced by the movie industry. I just witnessed that my father was very loved. Whether I went to the set or saw people gathered outside the house, I was always surprised by this. Why is my father so loved?” he added.

Dharmendra’s first wife was Prakash Kaur, whom he married in 1954 when he was just 19 years old. She shared two sons (Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol) and two daughters (Ajeeta Deol and Vijeta Deol) with him. In 1980, Dharmendra remarried Hema Malini and the couple had two daughters, Esha Deol and Ahana Deol.

READ | Did Dharmendra convert to Islam to marry Hema Malini without divorcing Prakash Kaur? When the 89-year-old superstar broke his silence on such news