Veteran actor Dharmendra died at the age of 89 on 24 November at his home in Mumbai’s Juhu. One of the most popular and successful actors in the history of Indian cinema, Dharmendra had also amassed considerable wealth by the time of his passing. Now, as speculations about his estate circulate, multiple reports have claimed that his family has no rift when it comes to inheritance. However, his children will not get Dharmendra’s ancestral property in Punjab. That land, worth crores, was left to someone else by the actor while he was still alive.
Dharmendra left ancestral property to cousins
Dharmendra was born Dharam Singh Deol in Nasrali, Punjab, his mother’s village. His family is from the nearby village of Dangon. That is where a young Dharmendra grew up. His father had land there, but after Dharmendra left for Mumbai (then Bombay) in the 1950s, his cousins and their sons took over the tilling and care of the agricultural land. According to multiple reports, the land and the house on it are currently worth ₹5 crore.
In 2015, when Dharmendra visited his village, he gifted that land to his nephews as they had been maintaining it for decades. His nephew Buta Singh Deol told The New Indian Express, “Dharmendra uncle was my father Manjit Singh’s cousin. The last time he came to the village was in 2019 when his son Sunny Deol fought the parliamentary elections from Gurdaspur. I also went to Gurdaspur to campaign for him. Before that, he came to the village in 2015-16 when he transferred 19 kanal and three marla land to my father Manjit Singh and my uncle Shingara Singh (now deceased).”
Buta Singh explained why Dharmendra left the ancestral land to his cousins’ children and not his own. “As he had left decades ago for Mumbai, our family has been taking care of his land, and we have been tilling it. He never forgot his roots and us,” he said.
Dharmendra’s family
Dharmendra had six children, including actors Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, and Esha Deol. Dharmendra married his first wife, Prakash Kaur, in 1954. The two have four children, including Sunny and Bobby. In 1980, he married fellow actor Hema Malini without divorcing his first wife. His daughters, Esha and Ahana, were born to Hema.
Dharmendra had been unwell for the last few weeks before his death and had been hospitalised in early November. However, he was discharged and then he spent his final few days with family at his home. His funeral and prayer meet were attended by many Bollywood stars.