Danny Denzongpa

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Danny Denzongpa was born to a Buddhist family in Gangtok. After completing his schooling from Birla Vidya Mandir in Nainital, he went on to pursue his graduation from St Joseph’s College in Darjeeling. After initial aspiration to join the Indian army, he went on to enrol at the Film and Television Institute of India which subsequently led to his Hindi film debut in the year 1971.

Danny Denzongpa is married to Gawa Denzongpa and the couple has two children; Rinzing and Pema Denzongpa. Danny’s original name was “Tshering Phintso Denzongpa” which he changed prior to his film entry as per the recommendation from his then colleague Jaya Bachchan.

Film debut and rise to prominence ( 1972-1975) Danny Denzongpa made his film debut with B R Ishara’s drama flick Zaroorat where he was seen in a negative supporting role alongside Vijay Arora and Reena Roy. The movie which was shot in 1971 had its releases 1972 thus making it his second release although official debut. He was then called upon by legendary Gulzar for his directorial debut Mere Apne which boasts of a heavy weight star cast consisting of Meena Kumari, Vinod Khanna and Shatrughan Sinha in the fore front. Danny had a major transition in the emotional drama where he was seen playing a positive character and turned out to be a major game changer for propelling his career prospects. He then went on to be a part of other movies like Milap and Khoon Khoon in the year 1972. However Danny had a revelation when he was offered the role of a crippled, frustrated husband in B.R Chopra’s Dhund which had him opposite Sanjay Khan and Zeenat Aman. Incidentally his first major negative character saw him coming up with a rave part and his performance was praised by many as one of the strong points of the movie. His next major release was Raaj Kumar’s 36 Ghante, Shashi Kapoor’s Chor Machaye Shor and Feroz Khan starrer Khote Sikkey, all of which panned out to be priceless additions to his filmography at the time with a wide variety of characters traits on show and established as a leading supporting actor in a short time. Array of other major releases ( 1975- 1980) Danny in the meantime also was initially approached to play the legendary villain character “Gabbar Khan” from the movie Sholay due to date issues, which was originally played by Amjad Khan in his film debut later on in 1976. Danny went on to be a part of many more critically and commercially recognized movies like Fakira, Sangram, Kalicharan, Kala Sona and Devata which witnesses him catapulting to the heights of a leading faces of the mainstream Hindi cinema. It was the lengthy role in Devata which led to him being offered meaty roles in subsequent outings. He had a marked assent with major negative roles in movies like Aashiq Hoon Baharon Ka, Paapi, The Burning Train and Chunaoti, all of which were her huge productions and fixed on his villian image at the time. Return after career fall phase ( 1981-1990) Danny took a forced sabbatical at the beginning of the eighties due to being typed cast in negative roles throughout. After a self-imposed hiatus which saw him taking a one film detour to filmmaking in 1980 with Phir Wohi Raat. However he bounced back with a well-remembered double role in the Raaj Kumar starrer crime thriller Bulundi in 1981 which saw him resurfacing with a stellar act. After a yet another let-down phase, he was forced to pick up all the negative characters coming his way which had become his forte by then. Danny went on to play noted antagonist roles in movies like Dharam Aur Kanoon, Kanoon Kya Karega ,Andar Baahar, Oonche Log. In the meantime he was also seen coming up with career defining acts in cult movies like Agneepath, Krantiveer, Hum and many more at various years which got him highly noted and appreciated for his charisma in handling villian roles. His other famous movies of the 90’s period were Salman Khan’s Sanam Bewafa and in Mukhul Anand’s Amitabh Bachchan starrer Khuda Gawah. He was then seen in supporting roles in movies like Raj Kumar Santhoshi’s China Gate ,Santhosh Sivan’s ShahRukh Khan starrer Asoka and also in the ensemble spy thriller 16 December along with Gulshan Grover and Milind Soman in the lead , which were all highly popular for Danny’s antics though resulted slowly to his decline. Other films in various languages ( 2001-2016) Indian Moksha Yeh Mohabbat Hai Ab Ke Baras Shikaar Frozen Hattrick Big Brother Acid Factory Enthiran Boss Jai Ho Baby Padmavati Naam Shabana The actor is going to be seen in the upcoming 2017 in the spy thriller film ‘ Naam Shabana’ directed by Sukumaran . The actor will be seen with Taapsee Pannu , Manoj Bajpayee and Anupam Kher.