Anil Dhawan

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Anil Dhawan is from Kanpur and has an elder brother David Dhawan a popular film director, nephews Rohit Dhawan (director), Varun Dhawan(actor).

He is married to Rashmi who was also an actress and the couple have a son Siddharth (actor) and a daughter Shilpi. He left home to go to the FTII in Pune to get experience and learn the techniques in film acting.

Jaya Bhaduri and Shatrughan Sinha were his batchmates and they got along so well that they are friends even today.

Anil Dhawan has had a very illustrious career in the films between the year 1970 to 2018.

He always wanted to be an actor and got his first break in the film Chetna in 1970 directed by B.R. Ishaara along with Rehana Sultan and Shatrughan Sinha, the shooting began on the second day after he passed out of the FTII. He was inspired by Jeetendra when he decided to make acting his career, and his father supported him completely.

There were lot of bold scenes in this movie, a story about a young man’s exploration with a prostitute which leads to marriage and tragedy. In those day the producers would make the artists sign a three-year contract and they could not sign any other movie, some would offer roles and not money and Anil needed the money to survive. He has worked with the top directors of that era for example Asit Sen, Basu Chatterjee, Tarun Bose, Ajoy Biswas, Hiren Nag and so on. He has worked for 40 years and is satisfied with the roles he essayed and the work he has done in films. He acted in about 169 senior artists like Ashok Kumar, Om Puri, Om Prakash, Mehmood and Mohan Choti to name a few and most of the veterans with whom he shared the screen are no more today.

Being a co-star with the beautiful actress Sadhana was his dream and he never thought a day will come when he would act opposite her, a dream come true for the young Anil Dhawan who had made his debut in the Hindi cinema.

Anil Dhawan the good looking handsome actor has been lucky enough to star opposite to some of the most charming, beautiful and talented actresses of his time.

Sanjeev Kumar, Navin Nischol, Vinod Mehra and Shatrughan Sinha were a clique for years together.

 Anil has been a great fan of Asha Parekh but unfortunately when he entered Bollywood, she was doing her last film ‘Heera’ and he would ensure to go and see her wherever her shootings were being held.  Asha Parekh directed him in Kora Kaghaz which was a television serial . He has kept some of his fan letters which are close to his heart even today He has acted in more than 40 to 50 films and 18 serials.

Anil remembers a few anecdotes during the shooting of ‘Piya Ka Ghar” that the director of the film asked him to go and face the camera and say Dharmendra and he was quite confused, wondered what and why is he saying that and Jaya Bhaduri persuaded him to do so and then realized it had to do something in the film. The second anecdote was during the filming of ‘Ek Hans Ka Jora’ when they were some water scene Zaheera his co star got left behind and he realized once he came to the shore that she was not along with him and turned around and saw her stuck to a rock and quickly turned back and got her.

He recalls of the time when the actors were only narrated the story and were expected to come in front of the camera and enact their scene/ role. 

Some of Anil Dhawan’s hit films were Piya Ka Ghar (1972) opposite Jaya Bhaduri, Ghulam-Begum- Badshah (1973) opposite Moushumi Chatterjee, Do Raha (1971) opposite Radha Saluja h, ich was a bold film Haarjeet (1972), Annadata (1972) Jaya Bhaduri, Hawas (Neetu Singh).

‘Piya Ka Ghar’ a Rajshri produced film had other FTII actors like Suresh Chatwal, Paintal and senior actors like Agha, Keshto, Mukri and Sundar so it made Anil more comfortable to act. During Diwali that year, he had signed six films in a day

Anil Dhawan a handsome actor , was a romantic hero but he also had a phase of action films wherein he enacted the scenes at the same ease and then switched over to doing character roles as he wasn’t too keen on the action roles.

Anil has done a couple of Hindi television serials as well like Parampara (Zee Tv) between 1993-1997

Tum Bin Jaoon Kahan from 2003 to 2005.

Main Lakshmi Tere Aangan Ki from 2011-2012

Pyar Ka Dard Meetha Meetha Pyaara Pyaara in 2013, Bhagyalakshmi in 2015 and Roop- Mard Ka Naya Swaroop in the year 2018.

When Anil Dhawan was signed for the film ‘Andhadhun’  his most recent film, directed by Sriram Raghvan, he was shocked, as the phones kept ringing and this was the biggest tribute to a senior actor who thought he was forgotten.

His daughter Shilpi had done her internship with this director and he had mentioned to Anil sometime back that he would meet him soon and he least expected a role being offered to him which came up as a pleasant surprise to him. In the film he is starring opposite Tabu has her husband. An actress much younger to him and remembers seeing her as a young girl. 

In ‘Pyar Ki Kahani’ Anil got to act with Amitabh Bachchan, Farida Jalal Tanuja and Prem Chopra. Originally Vinod Khanna and Jeetendra were to star in this movie but had other commitment so quit.

Moushumi Chatterjee, Vinod Mehra, Navin Nischol, Anita Raaj, Saawan Kumar Tak and Prem Chopra all lived in the same building and would meet regularly. Anil’s era was very nice and comfortable and was he was one of the first few actors who featured in the horror film like ‘Darwaza’.

Famous songs like ‘Yeh Jeevan Hai’ from Piya Ka Ghar, ‘Main To Har Mod Par’ from Chetna, Gulzar jaaye din from Annadata, Teri Galiyon Mein from Hawas were all chartbusters and people till today hum these songs and remember him. Anil Dhawan, His wife Rashmi and Shatrughan Sinha were a trio together in their younger days for their outings etc.