Danny Denzongpa - Film and Singing Career

Film and Singing Career

During his early film career, Danny used to practice learning Hindi by talking to the ocean. The Urdu came in handy in films such as Sawan Kumar's Sanam Bewafa and Mukul Anand's Khuda Gawah.

Danny's film career spans more than 4 decades. In the 1970s, he played relatively smaller roles which got him noticed. After his performance in the film Lahoo Ke Do Rang, he started getting more significant lengthy roles. Through the 1980s and 1990s, Danny mainly featured as the lead negative character opposite all the leading actors of those times such as Amitabh Bachchan, Dharamendra, Mithun Chakraborthy, Vinod Khanna, Anil Kapoor and Sunny Deol.

His most applauded negative characters are in Andar Baahar (1984) as Shera, Aandhi Toofan (1986), Bhagwaan Dada (1986) as Gangwaa, Agneepath (1990) as Kancha Cheena, Hum (1991) as Bakhtawar, Ghaatak as Kaatya, Krantiveer (1994) as Chatur Singh and Pukaar (2000) as Abhrush

He started out with B-grade movies such as B.R. Ishara's Zaroorat in 1971, and later moved on to Mere Apne and Kala Sona where he played more positive roles. He then went on to play the roles of the villain numerous times. Some of the antihero roles he played were an unscrupulous politician, corrupt policeman, traitor, and mingy landlord. He got his major break in Gulzar's Mere Apne and later in B R Chopra's Dhund where he played a crippled and frustrated husband. It is said Danny was the first choice to play the iconic role of Gabbar Singh in the film Sholay. However since he was away on the shoot of Feroz Khan film Khotay Sikke, eventually Gabbar's role went to Amjad Khan. One of his critically acclaimed roles as a villain came when he played the role of Bakhtawar, a don bent on revenge in Mukul Anand's Hum. He was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Villain.

He is an accomplished singer having sung with Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi and Asha Bhonsle, three stalwarts of Indian music. He has released Nepalese songs and has sung for Nepalese movies. His two most famous songs recorded in 1970s but still hit are "Chiso Chiso Hawama" ("In the cool air") and "Manko kura lai bandhi narakha..."("Do not keep the words of the heart tied").

He wrote and acted in the Nepali film Saino which was super hit. His nephew Ugyen Chhopel directed it. He has sung its title song and a duet with Deepa Narayan, wife of Udit Narayan. Later, this film was made in Hindi as Ajnabi as a telefilm for Doordarshan. He has sung a Nepali duet with Asha Bhosle, "Aghi aghi topai ko golaa, pachhi pachhi machinegun bhararara." His all-Nepali songs are hits and audience like them even today: "Hiun vanda chiso, Aago vanda taato..." ("Colder than snow, hotter than fire.."), "Naachana hoi maichyan hau nachana" ("Dance o lovely girl"), "Jhimkai deu pareli manma bajchha mitho murali..." ("Please blink your eyes and sweet sound of flute plays in the heart), etc. are his few hit numbers.

He is also a painter, a writer and a sculptor. Denzongpa owns two breweries, one in South Sikkim, and the other in the state of Orissa.

Danny has played the main negative character in many successful movies starring Amitabh Bachchan such as Agneepath, Hum and Kohram.

In the past decade, Danny gave stellar performances in movies such as Asoka and 16 December (2002). He then went on to appear in the successful Tamil film, Enthiran, co-starring Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai in the leads. Denzongpa played the antagonist role of Bohra, a prominent scientist who transforms Chitti (played by Rajinikanth) into an evil robot. Upon release, the film won critical and commercial acclaim.