Sunny Deol Biography – an Indian actor having a “Dhaai Kilo ka Haath”

Ajay Singh Dharmendra Deol (born 19 October 1956), better known by his stage name Sunny Deol, is an Indian actor, film director, producer, politician, and incumbent Member of Parliament from Gurdaspur (Lok Sabha constituency) of Punjab, India. As an actor, he has worked in more than 100 Hindi films and earned the image of an angry action hero. He went on to star in numerous successful films in the 1980s and 1990s and is considered one of the top stars of that time. Deol has won two National Film Awards and two Filmfare Awards.

Deol made his debut opposite fellow debutante Amrita Singh in Betaab (1983), for which he received a Filmfare Best Actor Award nomination. With his portrayal of an amateur boxer wrongly accused of his brother’s murder in Rajkumar Santoshi‘s Ghayal in 1990, Deol gained wide recognition and praise and won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor and the National Film Award – Special Jury Award / Special Mention (Feature Film). His portrayal of a lawyer in the film Damini – Lightning (1993) won him the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor. He starred in several other blockbuster movies such as Arjun (1985), Paap KiDuniya (1988), Tridev (1989), ChaalBaaz (1989), Darr (1993), Jeet (1996), Ghatak (1996), Ziddi (1997), Border (1997), Arjun Pandit (1999), Indian (2001) and The Hero: Love Story of a Spy (2003).

Another milestone for Deol was Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001), in which Deol portrayed a patriotic Indian truck driver, and the movie became the highest-grossing Bollywood film ever at the time of its release, garnering him a Filmfare Best Actor Award nomination. Later, Deol appeared alongside his father Dharmendra, and brother Bobby Deol together for the first time in the 2007 hit, Apne; followed by a family comedy, Yamla Pagla Deewana (2011), which was also successful.

Early life

Sunny Deol was born Ajay Singh Dharmendra Deol on 19 October 1956, in the village of Sahnewal in Punjab, India in a Punjabi Jat family, to Bollywood actor Dharmendra and Parkash Kaur.

He has a younger brother Bobby Deol and two sisters Vijayta and Ajeeta who are settled in California, USA. Hema Malini is his stepmother. Actress Esha Deol and Ahana Deol are his half-sisters. His cousin Abhay Deol is also an actor.

Acting career

Debut, breakthrough, & rise to prominence (1983-1989)

Deol made his debut in the 1983 romantic film Betaab in which role he was praised and he was nominated for best actor at Filmfare Awards. Deol appeared in Rahul Rawail’s Arjun (1985), in which he played the titular role of an unemployed youngster. The film went on to become a major hit and established Sunny Deol‘s status as an action hero. In 1986 he appeared alongside his father in Sultanat. In the final years of the decade, he appeared in several hits including Paap Ki Duniya (1988), Tridev (1989), and ChaalBaaz (1989).

Action hero image, commercial success & superstardom (1990-2003)

Deol won his first Filmfare Award for Best Actor in Rajkumar Santoshi’s 1990 film Ghayal. He paired with Aditya Pancholi in Vishnu-Devaa. From 1992 to 1997, he gave back-to-back hits with films like Vishwatma, Darr, Damini, Lootere, Jeet, Ghatak, Ziddi, and Border. In 1999 he made his directorial debut with Dillagi starring himself, his brother, and Urmila Matondkar.

His first blockbuster hit in the millennium was the 2001 film Gadar: Ek Prem Katha, directed by Anil Sharma, in which Deol played the role of a patriotic Indian truck driver, Tara Singh who falls in love with a Muslim girl, Sakeena, in the backdrop of 1947 partition violence, and makes a dramatic trip to Pakistan to get back his beloved. Gadar became the highest-grossing Hindi film up until then in mainstream cinema earning over ₹1.3 billion (US$16 million) worldwide and Deol was nominated for Filmfare Award for Best Actor once again. In the same year, Deol also worked in another successful action thriller film Indian (2001). Then, in 2003, Deol teamed up with director Anil Sharma yet again for The Hero: Love Story of a Spy, which also starred Preity Zinta and Priyanka Chopra. Released on 11 April, The Hero was billed as Bollywood’s most expensive film at that time with an estimated budget of ₹600 million (US$7.5 million). The film became the third highest-grossing Bollywood film of that year.

Box office fluctuations and expansion into comedies (2004-present)

Deol appeared alongside his father Dharmendra and brother Bobby Deol together for the first time in Apne (2007). In 2008, he appeared with his brother again in the ensemble film Heroes.

Deol’s first release in 2010 was Neeraj Pathak‘s crime thriller Right Yaaa Wrong which had him playing a police inspector. Yamla Pagla Deewana which also featured him alongside his father and brother was Deol’s only release in 2011 and was one of the biggest successes of the year In 2011, he started working in Radhika Rao and Vinay Sapru‘s I Love NY opposite Kangana Ranaut and in Chandraprakash Dwivedi’s Mohalla Assi opposite Sakshi Tanwar, but due to some reason both films were delayed and released several years later.

Having given a number of blockbuster hits earlier, from 2015 onwards, Deol has been getting several sequel movies. In 2016, Ghayal Once Again was released which was a sequel to his 1990 film Ghayal and is the second film directed by him. In 2017 he and his brother appeared in Shreyas Talpade‘s comedy film Poster Boys, which became a semi-hit at the box office. In 2018, Deol appeared in Yamla Pagla Deewana: Phir Se, the third film in the franchise. Also that year, two of his long-delayed films Bhaiyyaji Superhitt (where he plays a double role for the first time), and Mohalla Assi were released.

Meanwhile, in 2019, Deol took the mantle of a director again, his third film as a director, Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas, which marked the debut of his son Karan Deol, with another newcomer Sahher Bambba in lead roles.

Further, in 2023, the sequel of the 2001 blockbuster Gadar, Gadar 2, is scheduled to be released on 11 August 2023; and film story is centered around the era of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, in which Deol as Tara Singh returns to Pakistan to bring back his son. It is directed and produced by Anil Sharma, and the film stars Sunny Deol, Ameesha Patel, and Utkarsh Sharma in lead roles. Another sequel to the 2007 hit family movie, Apne, Apne 2 starring three generations of Deols with Dharmendra, Bobby Deol, and Karan Deol is under production; however, its release date is expected in late 2023/ early 2024.

Political career

Deol joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on 23 April 2019. He won the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections from the Gurdaspur constituency in Punjab against his rival Sunil Jakhar of the Indian National Congress with a margin of 82,459 votes.

Personal life (Sunny Deol Biography)

Sunny Deol is married to Pooja Deol (aka Lynda Deol) and the couple has two sons, Karan and Rajveer. Karan was an assistant director on Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 and rapped in a song sung by Diljit Dosanjh in the film. Karan Deol made his Bollywood debut in 2019 with the Hindi-language feature film Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas. In June 2023, son Karan Deol got married to Drisha Acharya in the presence of the Deol family, including Sunny Deol, Dharmendra, and Bobby Deol, among others.

Filmography (Sunny Deol Biography)

Awards and Nominations (Sunny Deol Biography)

Major associations

National Film Awards

Filmfare Awards

IIFA Awards

Screen Awards (Sunny Deol Biography)

Zee Cine Awards

Other awards (Sunny Deol Biography)

Lions Gold Awards

Won

• 2002: Best Actor for Gadar: Ek Prem Katha by the Sansui Viewers’ Choice Movie Awards.

Nominated

• 2011: Best Actor for Yamla Pagla Deewana by Bhaskar Bollywood Awards.
• 2011: Jodi No. 1 for Yamla Pagla Deewana (with Dharmendra and Bobby Deol) by Bhaskar Bollywood Awards.

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