Manoj Desai, veteran cinema exhibitor and theatre owner, has shared inside details from Dharmendra’s prayer meet organised by Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol, and stated that it’s “good” that Hema Malini did not attend the same and organised a separate prayer meet.
Dharmendra with Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol vs Hema Malini
Dharmendra, veteran superstar nicknamed as Bollywood’s He-Man, passed away on November 24 at the age of 89. Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol, his two actor-sons from his first wife Prakash Kaur, held prayer meet for him at Taj Lands End in Bandra on November 27. Dharmendra’s second wife Hema Malini and their daughters Esha Deol and Ahana Deol kept a separate prayer meet at their home on the same date. Now, cinema exhibitor and theatre owner Manoj Desai has shared inside details from the late superstar’s first prayer meet and stated that it’s “good” that Hema Malini organised a separate prayer meet.
Talking to Vickey Lalwani on his YouTube channel, Manoj said, “There was a huge line of cars. My car was standing at the 86th spot. Before me and behind me, there were big cars. They performed bhajans at the prayer meet and the whole world was there. Everybody turned up at the prayer meet. I met Sunny Deol and I told him that many people are coming, so I will leave from the front gate and he told me ‘thanks for coming’. I stood for 45 minutes outside, waiting for my car because there was such a huge queue outside.”
He also added he had never witnessed such massive footfall at the prayer meet of any other artiste, be it Rajesh Khanna or Yash Chopra, as he further shared, “I have gone to so many prayer meets of so many artistes including Rajesh Khanna‘s, in which I was sitting next to Amitabh Bachchan. I had also gone to the prayer meet of Yash Chopra, but I had never seen a prayer meet like that of Dharamji’s. It felt like the whole nation was there. There was no one who didn’t want to come.”
Lastly, Desai revealed why Hema Malini didn’t attend the prayer meet organised by Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol. “I was not surprised that Hemaji didn’t turn up. Before any controversy or any such talk would have happened, she organised a separate prayer meet for him. It was good that she didn’t come. Hema and Dharmendra ji were very close, but if somebody would have said something to her, the whole prayer meet would have been messed up. So, it was good that she organised a prayer meet separately”, he concluded.
Meanwhile, Dharmendra will make his final on-screen appearance in the upcoming war drama Ikkis. The Sriram Raghavan directorial is based on the life of the Param Vir Chakra awardee Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal, who was killed in action in the Battle of Basantar during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971. Led by Amitabh Bachchan’s grandson Agastya Nanda and also starring Jaideep Ahlawat and Akshay Kumar’s niece Simar Bhatia in her Bollywood debut, Ikkis will release in cinemas on January 1, 2026.
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