THE WANDERING PATH

Kabir Bedi on being familiar with love and loss, grief and glory. Farhana Farook in conversation with India's original crossover star

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Born to a Sikh father and an English mother, Kabir Bedi became a fusion of ideologies and creativity. Before venturing into films and television, he explored radio, advertising, and theatre, his career eventually spanning over five decades and multiple mediums. In Bollywood, his brandy eyes and ginger mane earned him the label of 'exotic', while in the West, his appearance felt familiar, almost native. But nothing matched the charisma of his pirate hero in the Italian TV series Sandokan, which shattered viewership records across Europe in the mid-'70s. Women clamoured for his autograph, some on their thighs, others eager to bear his children.

Now touching eighty, Kabir's international repertoire includes projects in Canada, Italy and the US. Highlights include Prince Omar Rashid in The Bold and the Beautiful, the villainous Gobinda in James Bond's Octopussy, as well as roles in Ashanti with Michael Caine, Thief of Baghdad with Roddy McDowell, The Black Pirate (II Corsaro Nero), and American series like Dynasty, Murder, She Wrote, and Highlander: The Series.