'Prem naam hai mera': How Prem Chopra became the man we love to hate

He did play the hero in a handful of Punjabi and Hindi films, but earned more fame as a new kind of villain, with his trademark licentious gleam, lascivious sneer, and a voice that could switch from silken menace to wheedling entreaty

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 With his rakish good looks and fondness for acting, he dreamed of making it big in Hindi films, and did achieve his aim -but not the way he had intended. He did play the hero in a handful of Punjabi and Hindi films, but earned more fame as a new kind of villain, with his trademark licentious gleam, lascivious sneer, and a voice that could switch from silken menace to wheedling entreaty. A combination of circumstances nudged him into becoming a negative character, who should "look and behave like a villain, yet be good-looking enough for the heroine to fall in love with him" (as stated in his biography), and from there, Prem Chopra, who turned 87 on Friday, went on to become a Bollywood institution.

Around for six decades now -- and still going strong, he worked with (and been thrashed) by every Bollywood superstar, from Dilip Kumar to Dharmendra, Rajendra Kumar to Rajinikanth, and Shammi Kapoor to Amitabh Bachchan (not to mention Manoj Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna and Jeetendra), while casting lecherous eyes on (and worse!) on top actresses from Nutan to Dimple Kapadia to Rekha. He has also appeared with the second or even third generation of his earlier co-stars.

Chopra is the only actor to have worked with the entire Kapoor family across four generations from patriarch Prithviraj down to Karisma, Kareena, and Ranbir -- as well as both generations of the Bachchans, the Dutts, the Deols, both Khannas (Rajesh and Vinod), and more-- a record unlikely to be surpassed! And then, he is the only villain to dance at least twice with Hema Malini onscreen -sending her, the unit, and later, audiences across the country, in splits.