Dheeraj Kumar
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Briefly
Avijit Ghosh, July 16, 2025: The Times of India
The actor, an alumni of FTII, Pune, was a finalist in the Filmfare United Producers talent contest.
“Three people emerged from that contest. Rajesh Khanna went on to become a superstar. Subhash Ghai became a super-director. The third was Purushottam, me,” Dheeraj Kumar had said in a recent podcast.
By the time he danced with unbridled energy in his debut film, Raton Ka Raja (1970), Purushottam Kocchar had become Dheeraj Kumar. The film flopped but Dheeraj was noticed as the duty-bound cop, the youngest of three brothers — Manoj Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan being the other two — in the blockbuster Roti, Kapda Aur Makaan (1974).
He was, however, more appreciated as the neatlydressed romantic bhadralok in Basu Chatterji’s ‘Swami’ (1977). In 1984, when Doordarshan went commercial with its first soap opera, ‘Hum Log’, Dheeraj followed his elder brother’s advice and became an early entrant. Television turned out to be his true calling.
Dheeraj Kumar started out as a hero in Hindi cinema and found stardom in Punjabi films before becoming a hugely successful actor-director-producer of television shows such as ‘Kahan Gaye Woh Log’ (1985) and ‘Om Namah Shivay’ (1997), passed away in a Mumbai hospital. He was 80.
“Dheeraj was admitted to the hospital as he had fever, cold and cough,” Ajay Shukla, a close associate and family friend, told PTI.
