His lazy smile and hunky frame had scores of women (and many males too, ahem) drooling over him. Sunny Deol, the eldest son of veteran actor Dharmendra, turns 56 on October 19, 2010. The actor, producer, director, just like other star son, has struggled to make his own identity, beyond that of being his father’s son. And one has to hand it to the actor, that he has managed to make a place for himself in the industry.
The two Filmfares and two National Awards (‘Ghayal’ and ‘Damini’) for ‘Best Actor’ are a testimony to that. Sunny has also benefitted from donning the mantle of the ‘angry young man’, a tag which has served him well in films like ‘Arjun’, ‘Yateem’, ‘Dacait’, ‘Narsimha’, ‘Vishwatma’, ‘Lootere’, ‘Ghayal’, ‘Damini’, ‘Kshatriya’ etc.
Blessed with a good physique, Sunny has managed to step in wonderfully into roles which require a lot of action. All his directors have exploited this facet of his persona as an actor in their films. Even a ‘Gadar’, which was a love story, gave Sunny enough opportunity to exercise his brawn.
In fact, Sunny has been most successful in roles which have allowed him to exhibit his physical as well as his acting prowess. Following his debut in 1983 with ‘Betaab’, he was a part of many successful movies like ‘Nigahen’,’Joshilay’, ‘Kshatriya’, ‘Darr’, ‘Ghatak’, ‘Jeet’, ‘Ajay’, ‘Ziddi’, ‘Border’, ‘Apne’ etc.
Sunny did some of his best work with directors like Raj Kumar Santoshi and JP Dutta. Among his landmark roles is probably that of the drunk lawyer of ‘Damini’, whose dialogues have become almost as famous as that of films like ‘Sholay’. But the biggest hit of his career was definitely ‘Gadar Ek Prem Katha’, which released on the same day as ‘Lagaan’.
Sunny made his directorial debut with ‘Dillagi’, which didn’t do too well at the box office, despite being a well made film. His last few films like ‘Heroes’ and ‘Apne’ have done fairly well at the box office but others like ‘Fox’, ‘Right Yaa Wrong’ were duds at the box office.
He will next be seen in ‘Yamla Pagla Deewana’, where is cast along with his father Dharmendra and brother Bobby Deol.
On his b’day, here’s wishing Sunny Deol, a bright year ahead packed with professional highs and heaps of happiness on the personal front too.
