When Hema Malini spoke about ‘family opposition’ to marriage with Dharmendra: ‘I called him and said…’

Hema Malini and Dharmendra’s wedding caused ‘quite a stir’ in the industry, television host Simi Garewal said on her show, Rendezvous with Simi Garewal, with Hema as the featured guest. She asked the actor about the difficulties she must have faced for getting involved with Dharmendra, who was married at the time.

Hema said in a 1999 appearance on the show that she never thought of marrying Dharmendra in all the years that they’d worked together, but certainly told herself that if she ever were to get married, it would be to ‘somebody like him’.

“I never bothered in the beginning, not at all,” Hema Malini said. “Anyone can say that he’s a very good-looking man, doesn’t mean you have to marry that person. So I continued working with him, but not at all with any intention that I’m going to marry this person. Somewhere I used to think, if at all I have to marry, I will marry somebody like him. Not him, definitely not. But it happened, so you can’t help it.”

When Simi Garewal pointed out the ‘stir’ that their relationship caused and asked if she had to face any ‘family opposition’ because of it, Hema said, “Naturally, no parents would like me to marry… This kind of a marriage. But it was difficult to decide any other thing for me… I was quite close to him, we were together for so long. And to suddenly think of somebody else to marry, I don’t think it is right. So I called him and I said, ‘You’ll have to marry me now’. He said, ‘Yeah, I’ll marry you’. So that is how it happened.”

Also read: Hema Malini says her father tried to stop her and Dharmendra from spending time alone: ‘Even Dharam ji was no less’

Dharmendra had four children from his earlier marriage — sons Sunny and Bobby Deol, and daughters Vijeta and Ajeita. With Hema, he had two more daughters, Esha and Ahana.