Bet you didn’t know this! Dharmendra‘s role in the 1987 ‘Aag Hi Aag‘ was nearly finalised with Dilip Kumar. The thespian had not only liked the story and agreed but had even been given a copy of Govinda’s 1986 runaway success ‘Ilzaam‘ to see because the director of ‘Ilzaam’, Shibu Mitra was going to direct ‘Aag Hi Aag’ as well.

The story goes that the producer of ‘Ilzaam’ and ‘Aag Hi Aag’, Pahlaj Nihalani had gone had gone to Ramgarh (where Sholay’ had been shot) to spend some time with his close friend Shatrughan Sinha who was shooting there with Dharmendra for ‘Loha’. Pahlaj Nihalani shared, “When I reached the sets of ‘Loha’ and people saw me, they started chanting slogans of some dialogues from ‘Ilzaam. When Dharmendra saw me- and it was our first meeting- he came up to me dancing a few steps that Govinda had done in ‘Ilzaam’. Jokingly, he said ‘
mujhe bhi Govinda jaise dance karvao‘. This happened in public who went mad because Dharmendra is a very shy person when it comes to dancing.”


Added Nihalani, “We had dinner post that and I asked Dharmendra if he would like to do my next film ‘Aag Hi Aag’. I told him there and there that he will have a very pivotal and integral part but he would have to play father. Dharmendra said he was game.”