Prem Chopra, one of the best-recognized villains of Hindi cinema, celebrates another year of his life on September 23. As an actor having a career of more than six decades and having acted in more than 380 movies, Prem Chopra became so famous for his villains that it was hard for audiences to distinguish between him and the character he portrayed.
With incidents ranging from actresses avenging him with a real slap to husbands actually hiding their wives from him, the career of Prem Chopra has been full of incidents which show us how effective the screen image of Prem Chopra had become. Here are five such lesser-known stories from his illustrious career.
An Actress Once Slapped Prem Chopra On Set
Among some of the most discussed events in the life of Prem Chopra is an incident when he was working on a particular scene in the late 70s. As Prem Chopra himself states, he had to grab a popular actress by the arm for a certain scene, but there were several takes since she could not do anything about her facial expressions.
But after they finished shooting that scene, the actress allegedly told the director that Prem had grabbed her arm so tightly that he wounded her, and she did not come back to work the next day.
However, when the actress came back to work, another scene required her to slap Prem Chopra. And as he stated, she hit him harder than expected. Prem Chopra himself claims that the director told him that the reason why the actress insisted on the scene was because she was seeking for her revenge.
Why Did Men Hide Their Wives When They Saw Him?
Chopra’s ability to portray villains on screen was so convincing that it continued even off screen. According to the actor, there have been instances where men have hidden their wives when seeing him in public because they considered him to be a threat.
The audiences of that era took whatever was shown in films very seriously. Chopra recounted meeting those men and having a conversation, but they were shocked to realize that he was just an ordinary man in real life.
However, it was a good sign for Chopra that the audiences thought of him that way. He took it as a mark of success as an actor.
His Villain Image Even Scared Nikhil Nanda
The effect of Chopra’s screen persona was not confined to strangers. During a recent interview, the seasoned actor mentioned a funny encounter that occurred between him and Nikhil Nanda, the son-in-law of Amitabh Bachchan. According to Chopra, Nanda once refused to come into the house after viewing Chopra’s shoes at his relatives’ home since he was too scared of him due to his portrayal of villains in movies.
This incident was yet another instance where Chopra’s reputation for playing villains made it difficult to differentiate him from his character.
What Happened When Rajesh Khanna Was Late To Set?
Chopra also narrated a strange tale from the shooting of “Haathi Mere Saathi,” which starred Rajesh Khanna and Tanuja. As per Chopra, it is believed that Rajesh Khanna was always late, despite having a call sheet at an early hour. Apparently, the producer Chinnappa Thevar sent some people to fetch the star to the shooting place, but it failed to work out.
Thevar would beat and abuse the person whom he had assigned for bringing the actor to the shooting place. At last, Khanna understood everything and started coming on time.
Prem Chopra Wasn’t Always A Villain
In spite of having become associated with negative roles, Prem Chopra did not have negative roles in mind while planning to join the world of Bollywood. In fact, like most other actors, he was initially interested in performing as a hero. However, though he has played heroes in Punjabi movies, the Hindi movies of his acting in the hero role were not as successful as he would have liked them to be.
However, his villainous roles became so successful that people began seeing him only through that role. Nevertheless, in time, Prem Chopra played positive and character roles as well.
Prem Chopra’s legacy, therefore, goes far beyond the famous line, “Prem naam hai mera, Prem Chopra.” His ability to make audiences hate, fear and remember his characters turned him into one of Hindi cinema’s most enduring villains. And the strange stories from his career show just how deeply that screen image once affected audiences in real life.