An innocent wish and a superstar's warmth: Boxer Amit Panghal recalls how Dharmendra felt like family

New Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) All that boxer Amit Panghal wanted after winning his first and only Asian Games gold in September 2018 was a meeting with Dharmendra, the iconic film star who he had grown to love thanks to his father's adoration for him.

To his surprise, within a day of going public with that wish on September 1, the charismatic superstar responded and invited him to his home.

Sometime in mid-November that same year, the two met at Dharmendra's palatial house in Mumbai to share a warm meal, discuss life and ambition from two different perspectives and make memories that Panghal says, would last a lifetime.

"We didn't meet after that but I had his phone number and I would wish him on his birthday, he would always respond," Panghal told PTI.

That annual ritual of last seven years ends this year. Dharmendra, who would have turned 90 on December 8, breathed his last in Mumbai on Monday morning.

The demise followed a battle with multiple age-related health issues that needed a lengthy stay at the hospital and triggered frenzied media speculation on his condition, leaving his family and well-wishers distressed.

Panghal saw it play out too and felt confused by it. He hoped all along that his hero would pull through.

"I had hoped that he would recover," he said.

The former World Championships silver-medallist and Commonwealth Games gold-winner then vividly recalled the chain of events leading up to that afternoon meeting.

"I was being interviewed after my gold medal in Jakarta. Someone asked what would you wish for now. I didn't have to think too hard. I just said I want to meet Dharmendra. I never thought this would spread that quickly online," said the Subedar in Indian Army.

"I also posted on Twitter (now X) that it was my biggest wish to meet him with my father (Vijender Panghal) and my formative coach Anil Dhanker, who is also a fan. To my surprise Dharmendra ji replied to my tweet and invited me to his home in Mumbai. I was over the moon," the now 30-year-old added.

"We met him in November at his house. He was with us for over two hours, we had lunch together and it didn't seem that I was meeting a popular figure. It felt I was meeting an elder from my family. He was an exceptionally warm man and offered me some great life advice," he said.

Given their career paths, there was hardly anything that could connect Panghal to Dharmendra. In his cinematic journey that spanned over six decades, Dharmendra's closest connection to boxing was playing a boxer twice.

In 1982, he starred in the lesser known 'Main Inteqaam Lunga' where boxing was a means to avenge his on-screen father's death and in 2007, he played a former pugilist seeking to clear a false doping blame on him in super-hit family drama 'Apne'.

Incidentally, some footage from 'Main Inteqaam Lunga' was used in 'Apne' as a character flashback for him.

Panghal, a two-time Olympian who is also India's only male boxer with a world championship silver medal, said Dharmendra spoke about his love for sports before the big screen dreams pulled him to Mumbai.

"He spoke about his journey, told me that I should never give up no matter what the circumstances are. He said 'when I came to Mumbai, I was singularly focussed on becoming an actor' and asked me to have similar dedication towards my craft," Panghal, who turned professional earlier this year, said.

As a young athlete getting used to fame and scrutiny at that time, Panghal said he asked the superstar how to deal with failures, which can "mess with the mind." "He knew how that felt and he urged me to always derive from the good that I achieve in life. He told me that how as a kid, while participating in a school race, he pulled out midway due to fatigue.

"Dharam ji said that he regretted doing that and not pushing himself enough. He said I should never do such stupidity and always stay focussed," the Rohtak man remembered.

"It is one of the most cherished experiences and conversations of my life. It felt as if I was talking to a loving patriarch and not someone I had not known at all before that day." Panghal's love for Dharmendra might have been passed down to him by his father but he does have his own favourite from the mega-star's filmography.

"I love watching 'Dharamveer', it's my comfort movie. It's such a wholesome entertainer and he looked so good in it," Panghal said, referring to the 1977 blockbuster set in a mythical kingdom in which Dharmendra played the role of a lost prince and shared the screen with some other stars of the era, including Jeetendra and Zeenat Aman. PTI PM PM AH AH