Ranjeet Bedi

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Ranjeet wanted to become a sportsman As a child Ranjeet was interested in sports. He was a good football player and his position was that of a Golly. At New Delhi’s Apeejay School he was popularly known by his friends as ‘Goli’ because was agile and like a bullet he would stop all balls and prevent goal. When he reached Hindu College (New Delhi) he continued his passion of football but after graduation in Arts, when all his friends joined Air Force, Ranjeet also filled the form and got selected. Ranjeet lost his Air Force job due to his flirt nature Since his youth Ranjeet was a flirt by nature hence when he joined Air-Force he began flirting with his Instructing Officer’s daughter. The two began romancing in the evening. One day their romance came to an abrupt end as the two were caught red handed by the officer. The angry officer kicked Ranjeet out from Air –force. Left with no job Ranjeet was in dilemma when he met Ronnie Singh at a party in Delhi. He was an aspiring filmmaker from London with good contacts with film star in Bollywood. He offered Ranjeet an opportunity to work in his film. Ranjeet was delighted and accompanied him to Mumbai.

Ranjeet married the actress whom he had finalized as his film’s heroine In the mid 80’s Ranjeet was bored of doing repetitive roles and decided to take sanyas from acting and direct films. He wrote the script of Kaarnama (1990) and decided to cast a fresh face opposite Dharmendra. During his hunt for the fresh face he selected a beautiful girl Aloka. But alas before the film could start Dharmendra got busy with other films. Circumstances became such that he had change the cast and rope in Farha. Aloka had no objection and she willingly accepted to become assistant director to Ranjeet. The film was an average hit. During the making of the film Ranjeet and Aloka came close. Ranjeet’s parents too approved their Jodi. They married in 1986.

Sunil Dutt came to the rescue of Ranjeet As promised Ronnie Singh signed Ranjeet and Jayant (Actor Amjad Khan’s father) and the film was announced by pomp and spectacle. Ronnie rented a Bungalow in Juhu and converted it into his office. Both he and Ranjeet got involved in filmmaking. At night Ronnie would party with film stars and take Ranjeet along. Thus Ranjeet made friendship with Sunil Dutt, Feroz Khan, Sanjay Khan, Dilip Kumar, Chetan Anand etc. However after 3 months the financer backing Ronnie backed out from the film. Ronnie was in tight spot hence he abandoned the film and went back to UK. Thus Ranjeet was in a fix and was about to pack his back and move to Delhi but Sunil Dutt came to his rescue and gave him a small role in his film Reshma Aur Shera (1971). Sunil Dutt gave Ranjeet a handsome amount of Rs 1200, which in those was a big amount. This helped Ranjeet to rent a house in Mumbai for himself and make a career in Bollywood. With the film Sharmeelee Ranjeet got stereotyped as a Rapist During the making of Reshma Aur Shera, Ranjeet became a good friend of Rakhee, who played Ranjeet’s wife in the film. Rakhee was doing Subodh Mukherjee’s film Sharmeelee as lead heroine opposite star Shashi Kapoor. Hence she recommended Ranjeet to meet film director Samir Ganguly, who looking for a villain’s role in the film. This was the first film in which Ranjeet had to rape Rakhee. Ranjeet was initially hesitant due to fear of his orthodox family but when Rakhee insisted. He agreed. Since Rakhee was aware of Ranjeet’s nervousness, hence she helped him and got out a fantastic act from Ranjeet. When Ranjeet’s family saw the film they were very angry and his mother asked him to get out from the house. When Rakhee explained to his parents, they understood. Nevertheless the role made Ranjeet stereotyped as a Rape Specialist because after that he did many films like Khote Sikkey, Keemat , Victoria No. 203, Dharmatma, Raampur Ka Lakshman and in most films he had signed. Madhuri Dixit was frightened to do rape scene with Ranjeet Ranjeet became so popular for his rape scenes that film producers demanded to include a rape scene compulsorily on public demand. Film distributors bought films only if Ranjeet had a rape scene. Ranjeet found it strange as women would be scared of him. In fact even new actresses were frightened to do rape with him. When Madhuri Dixit was told about a rape scene with Ranjeet in the film Prem Pratigyaa, she was scared and declined. But when the film director Bapu cajoled her and explained the importance of the scene she agreed. However after the scene she was delighted as Ranjeet had performed the shot so excellently that he looked cruel on screen and in reality he did not even touch her! The most difficult rape scene of Ranjeet’s filmy career The most difficult rape scene that Ranjeet did in his career was opposite Reena Roy in the film Daaku Aur Jawan directed by Sunil Dutt. The reason why the scene was complex because the scene was to be shot in a temple and had many lamps lit all over. Hence care had to be taken that no lamp should fall or else the oil would spill on the actors. With lit lamp it could have resulted in a fire tragedy. Hence after lot of pondering, Sunil Dutt decided to scrap the scene but Ranjeet assured to do the scene tactfully and the scene was shot without any problem! Ranjeet soon became lead villain Ranjeet was initially limited to doing supporting villain but Prakash Mehra offered him the lead villain in his film Haath Ki Safai (1974). The film was a huge hit and Ranjeet became a permanent villain in all Prakash Mehra films like Namak Halaal, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Sharaabi, and Laawaris. Later he did many villains as lead villains like Lahu Ke Do Rang, Hum Se Badkar Kaun, Kishen Kanhaiya, Zaalim etc. After Housefull 2 Ranjeet got a new lease of life Before Housefull 2, Ranjeet was into oblivion but after the success of Housefull 2 he won new fame and became a famous name on television He did many television serials like Hitler Didi, R. K. Laxman Ki Duniya, Bhabi Ji Ghar Par Hai!; Trideviyaan etc.