'Prem naam hai mera': How Prem Chopra became the man we love to hate

With his rakish good looks and fondness for acting he dreamed of making it big in Hindi films and did achieve his aim but not the way he had intendedHe did play the hero in a handful of Punjabi and Hindi films but earned more fame as a new kind of villain with his trademark licentious gleam lascivious sneer and a voice that could switch from silken menace to wheedling entreatyA combination of circumstances nudged him into becoming a negative character who should look and behave like a villain yet be goodlooking enough for the heroine to fall in love with him as stated in his biography and from there Prem Chopra who turned 87 on Friday went on to become a Bollywood institutionAround for six decades now and still going strong he worked with and been thrashed by every Bollywood superstar from Dilip Kumar to Dharmendra Rajendra Kumar to Rajinikanth and Shammi Kapoor to Amitabh Bachchan not to mention Manoj Kumar Sunil Dutt Dev Anand Rajesh Khanna and Jeetendra while casting lecherous eyes on and worse on top actresses from Nutan to Dimple Kapadia to Rekha He has also appeared with the second or even third generation of his earlier costarsChopra is the only actor to have worked with the entire Kapoor family across four generations from patriarch Prithviraj down to Karisma Kareena and Ranbir as well as both generations of the Bachchans the Dutts the Deols both Khannas Rajesh and Vinod and more a record unlikely to be surpassedAnd then he is the only villain to dance at least twice with Hema Malini onscreen sending her the unit and later audiences across the country in splitsHe also went on to evolve the possibly firstever catchphrase in Bollywood when he introduced himself to the terrified eponymous heroine in Raj Kapoors Bobby 1973Prem naam hai mera Prem Chopra he told Dimple Kapadia in his sly leering manner and his sole dialogue in the film that he had complained about to coactor and brotherinlaw Premnath went on to become his another claim to fame an Indian version of James Bonds selfintroductionThe same dialogue was reprised three decades later by Ranbir Kapoor in Ajab Prem ki Ghazab Kahani 2009 and Ajay Devgn in All the Best The Fun Begins with their characters bearing his name onscreen Prem Chopra himself repeated it in a flashback scene in Golmaal 3 2010Also Read Charlize Theron claims shes not as famous as Kim KardashianBut how did Prem Chopra evolve into a villainPrem Chopras family was one of the lucky ones to have gauged which way the wind was blowing in Punjab in the summer of 1947 and moved to Ambala with their goods a full month before fullfledged violence began They lived in Simla too where the young Chopra acted in college plays once appearing opposite Amrish PuriEstablishing himself in the film industry was not easy His wish to try his luck in films when he was waiting for his BA results in 1955 failed to impress his parents HIs initial foray into the then Bombay the same year was unsuccessful getting just a bit role in one film and promises galore which never fructifiedIt was not till 1960 that he was emboldened to return to Bombay and films but on the advice of his father searched first for a job to sustain himself and eventually became a supervisor in The Times of Indias circulation department responsible for eastern India His first appearance as a hero was in Chaudhary Karnail Singh 1960 a Punjabi film and though some small roles came his way a break was still far off Legendary director Mehboob Khan offered him a starring role in his next film but the project was delayed due to his illness Chopra as a result accepted a small but villainous role in Manoj Kumarstarrer Woh Kaun Thi 1964 and its success sealed his fateAfter the films premiere an angry Mehboob Khan chided him for his impatience prophesying he would now be labelled a villain only Chopra then met another top studio chief but his righthand man drew him aside and asked him three questions Did he want to be a popular actor to make money to have a house and a car As Chopra said yes to all three and then he was advised to forget about becoming a hero and continue as a villainThe die was cast and thus was born one of the abiding screen presences of Bollywood an actor who invented and reinvented himself as a villain interpreting each role with subtle nuances and different mannerisms while even featuring splashes of comedy sometimesDespite his screen appearances across the 1960s including two of his nonvillainous roles that of the revolutionary Sukhdev in Manoj Kumars Shaheed and of the younger son of King Porus in SikandereAzam both 1965 he hung on to his newspaper job till 1967 It was only after that did he go into movies full timeBe it the murderous brother in Jhuk Gaya Aasman 1968 the wayward son in Do Raaste 1969 the debauched lover in Kati Patang 1970 the criminal mastermind in Hare Raama Hare Krishna 1971 the scheming royal in Raja Jani 1972 or Bairaag 1976 or Kranti 1981 the treacherous friend in Do Anjaane 1976 the scheming businessman in Trishul 1978 or Dostana 1980 the unconcerned mine owner in Kala Patthar 1979 and many other portrayals of scheming relatives venal politicians crooked businessman and especially rapists his roles will remain in the minds of moviegoersSometime in the early 1990s however while getting beaten by yet another hero Chopra thought about how long he would continue doing this and followed his predecessors such as Pran into shifting into character roles It is in this form that the new generations have seen him as the truck driver in Bunty and Babli 2005 or the canny grandfather in Rocket Singh 2009 and will continue to for a long time hopefullyThree things marked him out he was an aficionado of Urdu poetry Dharmendra calls him Prem Awargi he used to write his dialogues out in Urdu script and tried them out in Hindi Punjabi and English he was open to working with anyone and he used to be solicitous of the heroes he was beating up onscreen Once Amitabh Bachchan asked him why he was so curious and pat came the reply that he expected the same concern from the hero when it was the latters turnPlay Quiz How well do you know Akshay KumarThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever