Indian Film Actors with Super Star Rajesh Khanna: Danny Denzongpa

Danny Denzongpa (born 25 February 1948) is an Indian actor, of Sikkimese Bhutiya descent, working in Bollywood films though he has also appeared in several Nepali, Tamil, Bengali & Telugu films as well and is also film director and singer as well. He has acted in around 190 Hindi films since 1971. In 2003, Denzongpa was awarded the Padma Shree, India's fourth highest civilian honour. Denzongpa is noted for his villainous and character roles. Danny's film career spans more than 4 decades. He has also starred in some international projects, the most famous being Seven Years in Tibet where he acted alongside Hollywood actor Brad Pitt.

Danny was born to a Buddhist family in Gangtok, Sikkim (the 22nd state of India since 1975) where he did his schooling from Birla Vidya Mandir, and thereafter completed his college from St Joseph's College, Darjeeling, in 1964. Denzongpa's love of horses and horse riding began at an early age, as his family was into horse breeding. He is also a painter, a writer and a sculptor.

He nursed an ambition to join the Indian Army and won the Best Cadet award from West Bengal and participated in the Republic Day parade. In an interview to The Times of India newspaper, he said that he had qualified for prestigious Armed Forces Medical College, Pune but withdrew admission to join Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. He decided to change his name to a simpler sounding "Danny" as his original name was tough to be pronounced by other students. The name has stuck since.

During his early film career, Danny used to practice learning Hindi by talking to the ocean.

He started out with B.R. Ishara's Zaroorat in 1971 (released in 1972) which was his debut film. He got his major break in Gulzar's Mere Apne (1971), where he had positive role. He had his first major negative role in B.R.Chopra's 'Dhundh' (1973), where he played the role of a crippled and frustrated husband, which showed his power to emote. Danny, in the 1970s period, was increasingly open to do versatile roles, but chose to do more positive roles. It is said Danny was the first choice to play the iconic role of Gabbar Singh in the film Sholay. However, since he was away on the shoot of Feroz Khan film Dharmatma, eventually Gabbar's role went to Amjad Khan. He played the second lead hero and had more positive roles in commercially successful critically acclaimed films like Chor Machaye Shor, 36 Ghante, Fakira, Sangram (1976), Kalicharan, Kala Sona and Devata (1978).

After his performance in the film Devata (1978) he started getting more significant lengthy roles. He was simultaneously part of big budget films like Aashiq Hoon Baharon Ka, Paapi, Bandish, The Burning Train and Chunoti in negative roles.

In the early 1980 period, he had thought of quitting films. He said in an interview, when asked why he decided to direct a film, "I remember in 80′s I was so fed up of the films I was doing. Those days every villain was a dacoit and I remember going on the sets where an actor called Tiwari was my henchmen and my den was a cave with lanterns. Next day I went on another set and I saw Tiwari again as my henchman, and the same lanterns. I asked myself what was I doing? I left Mumbai. I did lot of trekking and did not do films for a couple of years. I told NN Sippy about a script that I had in mind. and he asked me to direct. I made Phir Wohi Raat with Rajesh Khanna and my then girlfriend Kim." [7] After the success of his directorial debut, he received offers to act as the hero again in the films like Bulundi and Hum Se Badkar Kaun in 1981, which became successful. He played double role in the film Bulundi. However, most of the subsequent films of Danny between 1981-83 were not successful. Hence Danny started accepting supporting roles, often playing a character quite older than his real age. He played Kumar Gaurav’s father in law in Love Story (1981) and Mithun Chakraborty’s father in Boxer (1984). He started increasingly getting offers to play the negative character in Hindi films, post success of films Phir Wahi Raat, Jeeo Aur Jeene Do and Dharm Aur Qanoon. He then went on to play the roles of the villain many times since 1984. Since 1984 and through the 1990s, Danny mainly featured as the lead negative character opposite all the leading actors of those times such as Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Jeetendra, Mithun Chakraborty, Vinod Khanna, Anil Kapoor and Sunny Deol.

His most applauded negative characters are in Dharm Aur Qanoon (1984) as SP Karan, Kanoon Kya Karega (1984) as Raghuvir Singh, Andar Baahar (1984) as Shera, Oonche Log (1985) as Thakur Maan Singh, Aandhi Toofan (1986), Bhagwaan Dada (1986) as Gangwaa, Agneepath (1990) as Kancha Cheena, Hum (1991) as Bakhtawar, Ghatak: Lethal as Kaatya, Krantiveer (1994) as Chatur Singh , Pukar (2000) as Abhrush and Indian as Shankar Singhania. He was pitted against Pran in the film Sanam Bewafa and 1942:A Love Story. His command over the Hindi language came in handy in films such as Sawan Kumar's Sanam Bewafa and Mukul Anand's Khuda Gawah.

At a time, when he was increasingly doing negative lead roles, Rajkumar Santoshi cast him as the positive role in China Gate (1998). In the early 2000s, Danny gave stellar performances in movies such as Asoka and 16 December (2002). Some of the antihero roles he played included an unscrupulous politician, corrupt policeman, traitor, and mingy landlord. He has also starred in some international projects, the most famous being Seven Years in Tibet where he acted alongside Hollywood actor Brad Pitt.

Danny, in early 2003, decided to take a break from films as he wanted to do different but strong roles, even if it was a negative character. He appeared in only 10 films between 2003-2009.

He then made a strong comeback as the villain with his role in Enthiran. He made his debut in the Tamil films with Enthiran, co-starring Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai in the leads. Denzongpa played the antagonist role of Bohra, a prominent scientist who transforms Chitti (played by Rajinikanth) into an evil robot. He then started playing villain in big budget movies like Jai Ho (2014) co-starring Salman Khan, Bang Bang (2014) co-starring Hrithik Roshan.

He has recently played the role of a coordinator, Feroz Khan in the 2015 hit Baby co-starring Akshay Kumar.

He is an accomplished singer having sung with Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi and Asha Bhosle, three stalwarts of Indian music with music. He was first given a chance to sing by Dev Anand in the film Yeh Gulistan Hamara in 1972. Danny sang a duet with Lata Mangeshkar - Mera Naam Aao picturised on Johnny Walker and Jayshree.T. He has released Nepalese songs and has sung for Nepalese movies. His two most famous songs recorded in the 1970s but still popular are "Chiso Chiso Hawama" ("In the cool air") and "Manko kura lai bandhi narakha..."("Do not keep the words of the heart tied"). He sang a duet Suno Suno Kasam Se in Kala Sono with Asha Bhosle and sang a duet Mujhe Dostaon Tum Gale Lagalo with Rafi in 1978 film Naya Daur - both of which were composed by R.D. Burman.

He has sung a Nepali duet with Asha Bhosle, "Aage aage topai ko gola pachhi pachhi machinegun barara" in 1976. R.D. Burman composed the song - Sang Mere Nikle The Sajan from the 1981 film Phir Wohi Raat, which was directed by Danny himself - after getting inspired from melody of the Nepali folk song sung by Danny 'Aage Aage Topaiko Gola'. All of his Nepali songs are hits and people like them even today. "Hiun vanda chiso, Aago vanda taato..." ("Colder than snow, hotter than fire.."), "Naachana hoi maichyan hau nachana"' ("Dance o lovely girl"), "Jhimkai deu pareli manma bajchha mitho murali..." ("Please blink your eyes and sweet sound of flute plays in the heart), "Rato rani phulay ghain sanjama", "Pani Hai Paryo Jhyaure" etc. are some of his few hit numbers. He gained popularity as a singer in the period 1975-1990 especially in places like Nepal, Darjeeling, Sikkim and Assam.

He wrote and acted in the Nepali film Saino which was a super hit. His nephew Ugyen Chhopel directed it. He has sung its title song and a duet with Deepa Narayan, wife of Udit Narayan. Later, this film was made in Hindi as Ajnabi as a telefilm for Doordarshan.

Danny, who married Gawa Denzongpa, a Sikkimese princess and niece of the last chogyal from his hometown of Gangtok, currently resides in Juhu, Mumbai. He had a relationship with actress Kim Yashpal in 80's who was a leading actress in films from late 70's to early 90's. Since 2003, he has become more selective for the roles he plays. He works on his own terms in the movies he signs. His brother owns a bouj and beer factory in Melli, Sikkim.

Year From Award Won/Honored

2003 Government of India Padma Shri Honoured

Awards

Year Award Film