I am deeply shocked, she was my co-star: Dharmendra on Jayalalithaa’s demise

Veteran actor Dharmendra on Tuesday said he was “deeply shocked” by the death of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa who acted with him in the Hindi movie Izzat.

Veteran actor Dharmendra on Tuesday said he was “deeply shocked” by the death of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa who acted with him in the Hindi movie Izzat.

Dharmendra and Jaya in a still from Izzat.

“I am deeply shocked. She was my co-star. We worked together in Izzat in 1968,” the 81-year-old Dharmendra told a private TV channel.

Jayalalithaa in a song from Izzat.

Read: Jayalalithaa’s Bollywood stint

“At that time, we stayed for nearly one-and-a-half months in Kulu-Manali (Himachal Pradesh) for the shooting. She was there with her mother who prepared food for us,” an emotional Dharmendra said.

Later, whenever he visited Chennai, he would speak with her on telephone, but had not met her for years, the actor said. “When I learnt she was very ill, I fervently prayed for her recovery,” he said.

Read: Bollywood celebs mourn Jayalalithaa

Jayalalithaa made her debut in Bollywood with the musical blockbuster ‘Izzat’, playing the role of a tribal girl Jhumki, who is in love with a high-caste character played by Dharmendra.

Produced by F.C. Mehra and directed by T. Prakash Rao, the other female co-star in the movie was Tanuja.

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