Happy Birthday Ranjeet: The Iconic Baddie Of 70's Turns 72

He was the devil incarnate. The locket dangling on his bare chest being witness to his lustful exploits. The iconic baddie of the '70s and '80s, Ranjeet shot to fame with the infamy of having committed a record 350 rapes — on screen! That it made him the most wanted pin-up boy in showbiz was incidental. “I wasn’t good-looking like the heroes. But I had a good physique having been a goalkeeper. I was like a panther,” beams the 60-plus actor, whom friends call Goli (from goal-keeper). “My producers repeated me. I enjoyed my work,” says Ranjeet, who was both hated and desired by women. “I’ve never hurt a fly but how ruthlessly I treated women on screen!” The veteran is a staunch vegetarian and is not too fond of alcohol.

Ranjeet On His On-Screen Image & Playing a Villain

#Luck By Chance: Women have willy-nilly influenced Ranjeet’s life. “I was supposed to join the air force and was training at the National Defence Academy. But I was thrown out after I got involved with the trainer’s daughter,” he recalls. It was this rejection that pushed the Delhi lad into films. During this time, he also got acquainted with Ranjeet Singh, alias Ronnie, from Kota in Rajasthan at a party in Delhi. “He was well-connected with the British and the Indian film industries and asked me if I’d like to join films. With my face, I couldn’t imagine being in the movies but I agreed.” Ronnie was planning the movie Zindagi Ki Raahein and asked Ranjeet to accompany him to Mumbai. “I lied to my parents that I was just going for a visit.

#Mumbai Masala: In Mumbai, Ranjeet was introduced to industry stalwarts even before he had signed a film. “Ronnie was staying at Chetan Anand’s (late director) seaside bungalow in Juhu and took me along. I met Priya Rajvansh (late actor and Chetan Anand’s companion) there. It was the first time I had come face-to-face with a heroine. Ranjeet also befriended the Khan brothers, Sanjay and Feroz and played badminton with them. But despite becoming a familiar face on the circuit, no film offers came his way. Then he got offer for Sunil Dutt’s Reshma Aur Shera (1971) and Mohan Segal’s Sawan Bhadon (1970). “Dutt saab said, ‘Let’s give you a filmi name, just as I changed mine from Balraj Dutt to Sunil Dutt and Yusuf saab changed his to Dilip Kumar’,” reveals Ranjeet, whose real name was Gopal Bedi. Ranjeet remembers being paid a paltry sum for Sawan Bhadon. “I was signed for Rs 1500. After a week of shooting, I was given a cheque of Rs 250. I thought they had forgotten to add the zeroes. So I went to Mohan Segal’s office. But they just laughed it off. For a long time, I kept the cheque as a memento.”

#Shamless after Sharmilee: But soon, Ranjeet tore into the limelight for his rapist act in Sharmilee (1971). It became the precursor to several such on screen trysts. “I was embarrassed when my parents and relatives attended the premiere of Sharmilee in Delhi. I then took along my co-star Raakhee to meet and reassure them that it was only an act.

#Rape King: Gradually, ‘rapist’ Ranjeet went on to become a money-spinner. He was seen in Prakash Mehra’s Haath Ki Safai, Namak Halaal, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Sharaabi and Laawaris, as also in Manmohan Desai’s Amar Akbar Anthony. He redefined villainy in films like Victoria No. 203, Dharmatma, Vishwanath, Rocky and Hero. So popular were his raucous acts that distributors would demand ‘a rape scene with Ranjeet’ to boost the film’s viability. Ranjeet remembers the difficult rape scene he shot with scared Madhuri Dixit was when she had to shoot with him for Bapu’s Prem Pratigyaa (1989). “After the scene, Madhuri was asked whether she was okay. But she said she didn’t sense me touching her even once.” Ranjeet adds, “I never used force in my scenes; I’d whisper cues in the heroine’s ears like ‘pull my hair’, ‘push my face’ and guide her.”

#Hate-me-not: But off-screen, the villain invited reactions that varied from shock to awe. For Zamanat (1977), director A. Salaam wanted him to flaunt a cobra as a pet. The cobra’s poison was removed before the shot. But because I held it tight, it got irritated and bit me while we were shooting. A lady doctor opposite Filmistan Studio was sent for. When told I was the injured party, she backed off saying, ‘Main nahin aati, he’s so crude’!” He adds, “Women often found me creepy. A censor board officer would shut her eyes every time I came on screen.”
Leaving his shirt buttons open was a Ranjeet idiosyncrasy. “Those days we didn’t have stylists. I liked wearing huge lockets and to show them off, I would leave the shirt buttons open. The audiences would be busy watching the locket and the scene would be over,” he smiles.

#Women & Me: The villain had his fair share of link-ups. His live-in relationship with girlfriend Pushpa also invited much gossip. But within a year-and-a-half after marriage, Pushpa walked out on Ranjeet and even aborted their baby. Few years later, Ranjeet met Aloka aka Nazneen, who was then a star aspirant. He was planning to launch her in his directorial debut Karnaama. Though Aloka could not be his leading lady, she nevertheless became the lady of his home. “My parents liked her and suggested I marry her. Aloka was a homely girl and made for an ideal wife,” says he. The two got married in 1986.

Not many would know that the ‘ruthless’ Ranjeet has a softer side and enjoys painting, gardening, writing and even preparing barbeque chicken. “I’m a vegetarian but not a pandit,” he says. Probably the most hated villain in Hindi cinema, he potrayed the characters brilliantly in 200+ films.