Actor Ranjeet is counted among the top actors of Hindi cinema. He played the role of a villain on screen in such a way that people believed him to be a real villain. Born in September 1941 in Jadinyala Guru, a small town near Amritsar, Ranjit’s parents named him ‘Gopal Bedi’. After school, Gopal Bedi came to Delhi and took admission in Hindu College here. One afternoon in 1966, Gopal was chatting with his friends in the college canteen. Friends had a newspaper in their hands, in which an advertisement of the Indian Air Force was printed. Friends started talking about how difficult selection in Air Force is. Every year only 10-12% people are successful.
Roshmila Bhattacharya writes in her book ‘Bollywood’s Iconic Villains: Bad Men’, published by Rupa Publications, that Gopal Bedi, along with his four friends, had fun and saved money from their pocket money to become an Air Force officer. Filled the application form. He also qualified the Air Force Common Admission Test. After this Gopal was called to Jabalpur Air Force Selection Board. Here also he qualified.
Why were you fired from Air Force job?
Till then Gopal Bedi had not told his parents about applying for the Air Force. When the final selection was done, father’s signature was required at one place. This is how his parents came to know about the selection. Gopal Bedi was sent to Coimbatore for training. Here in Cantt, he had a fight with a senior officer. That officer felt that Gopal had an evil eye on his daughter. Roshmila Bedi writes that there was no truth in this. That officer started harassing Gopal often. One day, fed up, Gopal abused the officer in Punjabi. After this he was thrown out of the academy. In this way Gopal again returned to Delhi.
How did you get roles in films?
Roshmila Bhattacharya writes that Gopal was unhappy after being expelled from the academy. During this time he went to a friend’s house. The friend’s father had organized a small get-together, in which many guests had come. When his friend’s father asked Gopal how his training was going, he had to tell him that he had been expelled from the academy. He was leaving the party and suddenly someone put his hand on his shoulder and asked, would you like to work in films? Gopal was shocked to see that man dressed in suit and boots. He had never acted in the film To Kya Ramleela Tak. The man called him for a meeting at Claridge’s Hotel the next day. He reached the meeting feeling scared. The person introduced himself as Ranjit Singh alias Ronnie. He offered him the role of a truck cleaner in his film. Gopal agreed to do that role. In this way the path to the world of cinema opened.
How did the name Ranjit come from Gopal Bedi?
Once Gopal Bedi was going to Jaisalmer with Sunil Dutt. In the taxi, Sunil Dutt told him that he should keep a film name and asked him to choose one letter. Gopal chose ‘R’. After this Sunil Dutt said that you should keep the name Ranjeet. This name reminds me of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who was a great warrior. To this Gopal immediately said yes. Phil Sunil Dutt called his Mumbai office and said that from now on Bhopal Bedi will be promoted as Ranjeet. In this way he became famous by the name of Ranjit.
parents stopped talking
When Ranjit’s family came to know that he had started working in films, they stopped talking to him. There was no conversation for several months. After several months, Ranjeet tried to convince his family. When the premiere of the film ‘Sharmilee’ was held in Delhi, he also invited his parents to the premiere. In the film, when Ranjeet started pulling Rakhi’s hair and tearing her clothes, her parents got so angry that they left the place. Later when Ranjit went home, his mother started saying that you have blackened my face. No one is left worthy of showing his face. Now what answer will we give to anyone in Amritsar? After this Ranjeet went to the hotel where Rakhi was staying. He brought her along with him and assured his parents that he had not actually misbehaved with Rakhi, rather both of them were acting on screen. His mother kept apologizing to Rakhi.
Roshmila writes that after this her parents started watching their son’s films occasionally. Once when Ranjeet was shot on screen, his mother started screaming in the theater that she had killed her son. Then somehow people explained to him.
People start abusing after seeing their daughter together.
Ranjit, who filmed rape scenes on screen at least 300 times in the 70s and 80s, started considering him a villain in real life too. Roshmila writes that after many decades, when his daughter Divyanka started working in Delhi, he often used to come to Delhi from Mumbai to meet her. When he would go to a hotel or restaurant with his daughter for dinner in the evening, people would start whispering to him as soon as they saw him and would say, “The old man, he doesn’t even spare girls of his daughter’s age…”
Tags: bollywood actors, bollywood news, Sunil Dutt
FIRST PUBLISHED: October 6, 2024, 16:51 IST
