Did you know? Hema Malini wanted to 'marry someone like Dharmendra', not him

Hema Malini and Dharmendra

Hema Malini and Dharmendra had one of the most filmy love stories in Tinsel Town. The actors had a complex love marriage with several obstacles that came with the veteran actor's marital status. While Dharmendra and Hema have now settled down and are leading happy lives, did you know the actress was against the idea of marrying him?

On Simi Garewal's popular celebrity talk show, Rendezvous with Simi Garewal, Hema revealed, "I never bothered in the beginning, not at all. Anyone can say that he's a very good-looking man, doesn't mean you have to marry that person. So, I continued working with him, but not at all with any intention that I'm going to marry this person."

She added, "Somewhere I used to think, if at all I have to marry, I will marry somebody like him. Not him, definitely not. But it happened, so you can't help it."

Hema continued, "Naturally, no parents would like this kind of a marriage. But it was difficult to decide anything else for me. I was quite close to him, we were together for so long. And to suddenly think of somebody else to marry, I don't think it is right. So, I called him and I said, ‘You'll have to marry me now'. He said, ‘Yeah, I'll marry you'. So that is how it happened."

If reports are to go by, Dharmendra and Hema fell in love in 1970 on the sets of Tum Haseen Main Jawan. Despite being married to Prakash Kaur and having two children with her, the actor pursued Hema for marriage. The actress-dancer wasn't reciprocating Dharmendra's feelings as she didn't want to create an obstacle in his married life.

Hema and Dharmendra have two daughters together. Their elder child, Esha Deol, is an actor. She is married to Bharat Takhtani and has two daughters. Ahana Deol is the couple's youngest child. She stays away from the limelight and is a dancer like her mother.

Dharmendra and Prakash Kaur have 4 children. While Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol are actors like their father, the daughters- Ajeeta and Vijeta- are not a part of showbiz.