Jackie Shroff

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Son of Dharmendra, Older brother of Bobby Deol and Esha Deol. He is married and has two children. Rumoured to have had an affair with Dimple Kapadia.

Sunny made his debut as a teenage romantic hero in Betaab with debutante actress Amrita Singh. Born to filmstar Dharmendra, Sunny Deol born as Ajay Singh Deol changed gears with different roles in several movies. Action roles seemed to be his forte, but he also tried his hand at romantic roles in movies like Sohni Mahiwal and Imtihaan. From romantic hero to the rebellious, unemployed angry young man out to get justice, the blockbuster Ghayal established Sunny as the action hero in Bollywood.

He was also acclaimed for his performances in movies like Damini, Arjun and Jeet. Lately, Sunny has been busy with other work apart from acting - directing. Dillagi directed by Sunny Deol stars Urmila and Bobby besides himself. For now, Sunny has his hands full and more home productions seems to be in the offering.

He was another puny star son, written off even before the first movie was released. Father Dharmendra's launchpad for his eldest son - Sunny Deol. Not much was expected from these quarters as one had seen quite a few great falls. Remember Kunal Goswami, Kumar Gaurav...? Besides critics believed that he wouldn't measure up to the standards of his illustrious father.

But teamed up with sardarni Amrita Singh, Rahul Rawail's Betaab opened to packed theatres in August 1983. A Bollywood version of Taming Of The Shrew, Sunny's fresh look and meaningful side-glances successfully tamed the audience in accepting him as a hero. Unlike most heroes, the fact that he was married, did not affect the success of this romantic film.

This was followed by Sunny. Despite being cast with Amrita Singh, having Dharmendra play his screen father and sporting some absolutely great songs, Sunny turned out to be a major flop. After a neverheard-of Savere Wali Gaadi and a little-known Sohni Mahiwal, this star son was already being written off. Just then Rahul Rawail stepped in again with a film - Arjun. Arjun (1985) turned out to be a major turning point in Sunny's career.

Portraying the frustration and anger of an unemployed youth, who becomes a pawn at the hands of a cunning politician, Sunny firmly established his roots in the industry. Here was someone who could step into the shoes of the Big B - the Angry Young Man. And Sunny was shrewd enough to tap this aspect of his talent rather than attemmpt to prance around.

With Dacait (1987) and Yateem (1989), Sunny graduated into a bare-chested, bulging biceps, action hero - our desi version of Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Scwarzenegger and Van Damme rolled in one! J P Dutta's Yateem set the ideal setting for Sunny's next release Ghayal. With Rajkumar Santoshi's debut as a director, Ghayal became one of the most critically-acclaimed successes of the '90s.

Sunny acted in a number of multi-starrers like Paap Ki Duniya, Ram Avtar, Tridev and Kshatriya. Among his noticeable performances were Narsimha (1991), Lootere (1993) and Damini (1993). Narsimha created more news for the roaring affair between Sunny and Dimple Kapadia, than for his acting talents. He won an award for his role in Damini. Though making an entry only after the interval, Sunny simply takes over the film. And by the end of the movie, has the audience eating out of his hands. Darr with Juhi Chawla saw Sunny in a much-more subdued role, where his famous hathodawala haat is put to use only during the end of the movie.

The oh-so-propah action hero went errant with a bad attempt at dancing in Jeet (1996) with Yaara o yaara. This brief moment of weakness was (wisely) never repeated. Ghatak (1996), the sequel-to-sorts to Ghayal couldn’t match up to the standards of the former film. Border, by J P Dutta, brought out the best in Sunny. Another flop in the line was Ziddi, which helped neither his career nor his love and home life.

After over 11 years of a long-lasting affair with Dimple, cruel Cupid decided to have a shot again at Sunny. Endowed with such strong capable shoulders, Sunny couldn’t help but lend it to the beautiful and vulnerable Raveena Tandon, who was suffering from a nervous breakdown. On the sets of Ziddi they became "good friends", immediately threatening the position of an already-dethroned wife, Pooja Deol, and the past reigning girlfriend Dimple. This acted as a catalyst in the husband-wife relationship, as Pooja decided that enough was enough. She tagged her husband along on almost every shoot till Sunny saw her way. And the industry is agog with the news of their patch-up.

In a career spanning over 14 years, Sunny has firmly established himself as an action hero. He is the one-man demolition team, who can successfully wipe out the bad elements in the society. Every director banks on his famous side-glances and slow dialogues delivered in his drawling nasal tone. While he looks perfectly at home knocking down a few teeth of the villains, there are certain things that Sunny cannot manage. Dancing around heroines, trying his hand at comedy or doing emotional scenes. Sunny becomes completely incoherent while doing highly-charged emotional scenes (Ghayal and Ghatak).

Well, that was then. In Gadar, Sunny proved that not only that he can do action at his best, he can also excell completely in emotions. The audience liked his performaces to this extent that Gadar-Ek Prem Katha turned out be the biggest hit of the year 2001.

Sunny also bagged an award for the Outstanding Performance for Gadar in the Lux Zee Cine Awards 2002.

Apna Sunny genuinely believes that the brand of patriotism that he has been propounding through his high-pitched action phillums is here to stay. "The wave of patriotism has reached its zenith, more so after the attack on the WTC. Since the politicians have done nothing, it's for us to take the initiative and bring about change…"

He believes he has rendered great service to the cause of promoting nationalism by making movies which revolve around patriotic themes. "It's high time we realized that we are Indians first and Gujjus or Punjabis or whatever later…"

He lives up to his real name, Ajay Singh Deol. Ajay means invincible and there's no denying Sunny's invincibility at the box-office. (even though, of late, some of the magic seems to have worn off!) A Sunny Deol starrer is sure to lure the Ludhiana crowd, or so the industry adage goes.

And it still rings true. Look at his latest releases 'Champion' and 'Farz' for instance. Though the films didn't do well in the metros, they're still running to packed houses in Punjab. That's the pure 'Punjab da puttar' appeal Sunny has. Just like his dad Dharmendra. A chip of the old block? His debut film 'Betaab' (1983) set the box office on fire and soon enough, Sunny was labelled the next angry young man on the prowl. Rahul Rawail's 'Arjun' (1985) followed and overnight, Sunny had carved a special niche for himself. The hits started pouring in but the bouquets started arriving only with the release of 'Ghayal' (1990). It also marked the beginning of the (short-lived) Raj Santoshi-Sunny Deol combination. Santoshi's 'Damini' not only got Sunny the accolades but also his first national award. Sunny was on a roll and how! Touted as the highest paid actor on the block, Sunny's 'sunny' spell at the box-office continued with NR Paschisia's 'Ziddi' and Sajid Nadiadwala's 'Jeet'. Not to forget, Raj Santoshi's 'Ghatak', with Mamta Kulkarni's seductive 'Koi Jaaye To Le Aaye' number, and of course, Rahul Rawail's 'Arjun Pandit' (with Juhi Chawla).

High on success, Sunny started scouring story ideas for his home production. When plans of making a love story based in London, called 'London', fell through, the Deol announced 'Dillagi', his first directorial venture co-starring brother Bobby. Suddenly, all his other projects were put on the back burner, even as Sunny put his heart and soul into his home production. Though the film failed at the box-office, not even the critics doubted Sunny's directorial ability. Sunny, for now, is knee-deep into his own home-production, 'Indian', which stars Shilpa Shetty and Rahul Dev, besides him, of course. He is also featuring in Zee Telefilms' 'Gaddar' (with newcomer Amisha) and has been signed on for Pahlaj Nihalani's untitled venture (opposite Aishwarya Rai) and Guddu Dhanoa's untitled one with Tabu and newcomer Reema Sen.

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