When a young starstruck Dharmendra intruded into Dilip Kumar's home!

New Delhi: Much before he won the Filmfare talent contest to launch his foray into the film world, Dharmendra visited Bombay, boldly went to his idol Dilip Kumar's house, walked in and reached right up to his bedroom only to run away after the thespian woke up to find a stranger in his home.

The interesting anecdote from sometime in 1952 is talked about in detail by Dharmendra himself in the 'Reminiscences' section of Dilip Kumar's autobiography 'The Substance and the Shadow'.

"Sometime in 1952 when I was in second year of college I travelled to Bombay from the small town of Ludhiana, in Punjab, where we lived. I had no definite plans of becoming an actor back then but I definitely wanted to meet Dilip Kumar whose acting in 'Shaheed' had touched a deep emotional chord within me. For some inexplicable reason I began to fancy that Dilip Kumar and I were siblings," Dharmendra said.

"The very next day I reached Bombay I boldly went to his house in Bandra's Pali Mala locality to meet him. I wasn't stopped at the gate by anybody, and so I walked right into the house through the main door. There was a wooden staircase leading to a bedroom upstairs. Again, nobody stopped me, so I climbed up the stairs and stood at the entrance to one of the rooms," he said in his reminiscences.

Dharmendra recalled that a fair, slim, handsome youth was asleep on a couch.

Dilip Kumar must have sensed someone's presence and suddenly woke up somewhat startled, he said.

"I stood still not knowing what to do. He sat up on the couch and stared at me, quite taken aback to see a total stranger standing gingerly at his bedroom door gazing admiringly at him," Dharmendra said.

"As for me, I couldn't believe my eyes: It was Dilip Kumar, my idol, in front of me. He called out to a servant loudly. Now scared, I ran down the staircase and bolted out of the house looking behind to see if I was being followed," he said.

Dharmendra said when he reached a cafeteria, he went inside and asked for a cold lassi.

"As I sat in the cafeteria and thought back to what I had done, I realized how reckless I had been by intruding into the privacy of a star. So what if there was no watchman at the gate and no family member in the house to stop me?" he recalled.

In the villages of Punjab the houses were always open to anybody who cared to drop in, Dharmendra said and added that there was a strong bond amongst the people with no barriers and one could just walk into a house without any formalities and be welcome at any time of the day or night.

"I was very happy to see my idol living just the way we lived in Punjab. But then, I had blundered by taking it for granted that I did not need an introduction. This was Bombay, the big city, and the house belonged to the star Dilip Kumar!" he said.

In the 'Reminiscences' section of Dilip Kumar's autobiography, Dharmendra also recalled that six years after this incident, he returned to then Bombay to take part in the United Producers and Filmfare Talent Contest.

"I was truly keen on becoming an actor now and I had convinced my father who had yielded to let me join films. I was declared a winner and, following that, I was asked to report at the Filmfare office for a photo shoot. I did not know how to apply make-up and the photographer was impressed by my face but he wanted a little touch up. A fair, slender girl came to me with a make-up kit and she began to touch up my face.

"The then editor of Filmfare, L P Rao, asked me softly whether I knew who the girl was. On saying I didn't, he told me she was Farida, Dilip Sahab's sister, who was working with Femina. I saw her leaving and I ran after her requesting her to arrange to meet Dilip Sahab. I told her I firmly believed that he was my brother too. She was amused but she agreed to call L P Rao if her brother agreed," Dharmendra recalled.

The next day, Dharmendra said he was called over to their bungalow, 48 Pali Hill at 8.30 p.m and "time stood still" for him when "Dilip Sahab" came out and welcomed him and gave him a chair to sit beside him on the lawns.

The Pali Hill house was not the same one which Dharmendra had intruded years earlier.

"He (Dilip Kumar) talked to me like an elder brother, full of love and concern and narrated how he became an actor and how difficult was for him in the beginning to understand the demands of the profession since he came from a non-filmi background," Dharmendra said.

Dharmendra recalled that he just listened to Dilip Kumar spellbound as he spoke in English, Punjabi and Urdu in his soft, refined voice.

"I just could not believe that I was actually sitting next to him and he was talking to me," he said.

When Dharmendra was leaving, Dilip Kumar took him upstairs to his room and gave him a sweater from his cupboard because it was a bit chilly and he had noticed that he was wearing just a thin cotton shirt.

"He (Dilip Kumar) hugged me and saw me off at the gate. I can still feel the warmth of that hug because it was genuine," Dharmendra said.

Dharmendra, the star who wrote himself into showbiz legend in a 65-year career spanning 300 films ranging from "Satyakam' to "Sholay", died in Mumbai on Monday. He was 89.