QAMYAB – THE FORGOTTEN GEMS OF BOLLYWOOD
Qamyab is our humble tribute to all those lesser-known actors, one hit wonders and junior artists who we see umpteen times but don’t know about; beyond their faces. These actors have been an integral part of Bollywood but didn’t get their due. This series is our sincere attempt to put a name to these faces, familiarize them to our readers and celebrate their achievements in life – however big or small. We believe that every artist contributes in his/her own way to the cinema’s success. Qamyab will explore the unknown lives of such actors and artists as we believe even these forgotten gems of Bollywood deserve their due recognition today.
An actor’s reputation is as fragile as glass. Sometimes, even a seemingly small error in pronunciation or a particular weird mannerism can bring huge brickbats and virtually end a budding career.
Our today’s forgotten gem has borne the brunt of a badly spoken line, rather one word, which ended his promising acting career. We are talking about the handsome Deepak Malhotra.
Born in 1970, Deepak was born and brought up in Bangalore and completed his education there. His chiselled face and Greek God like body gave him an easy entry in the field of modelling.
Deepak became a top model of the ’80s endorsing all the leading brands of that time. He had a huge female fan following due to his drop-dead macho looks.
It was in early 1990 that top producer- director Yash Chopra was making Lamhe after the super successful Chandni (1989). He spotted Deepak in a suiting commercial and offered him a role in this movie.
Deepak was not provided details about his role, except that he was playing the lead as Sridevi’s husband. A Yash Raj production seemed like a dream launch for Deepak Malhotra and he was elated to be a part of this prestigious project.
Earlier, Deepak had auditioned for Sooraj Barjatya’s Maine Pyar Kiya (1989) on his friend Salman Khan’s advice but finally, it was Salman himself, who got selected as the hero and achieved superstardom.
At Lamhe’s trial show, Deepak realised that Anil Kapoor had the meatier main lead role and not him. Some of his scenes had also got chopped at the editing table. As a newcomer, Deepak had no say and hence, decided to take these things positively.
Lamhe released in November 1991 and despite being a beautifully made romantic drama, bombed at the Indian box office. While Sridevi and Anil Kapoor were appreciated, Deepak Malhotra got tremendous flak for his performance, particularly his weak voice and dialogue delivery.
One particular line, where he addresses his onscreen wife Sridevi as “Pallo” was heavily panned and Deepak became a laughing stock of the industry. It is said that the audience at Metro Cinema, Mumbai were laughing so hard during this scene that the exhibitor decided to trim the “Pallo” utterances to just one in the subsequent shows.
Some gossip magazines wrote about a possible sabotage of Deepak’s voice, which wasn’t so bad in real life. Deepak chose to maintain a dignified silence about this matter and took the harsh criticism on his chin.
While Lamhe was being filmed, Deepak was being considered for some big films like Yash Chopra’s Darr (it was titled Kiran at that time) with Raveena Tandon and Rahul Rawail’s Bekhudi with Pooja Bhatt.
Unfortunately, both these biggies fell out of his hands. Darr was made with Sunny Deol, Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla while Bekhudi’s cast changed to debutants Kamal Sadanah and Kajol. Deepak was also considered for movies like F.C. Mehra’s Chamatkar (1993), Rakesh Kumar’s Suryavanshi (1992) and Mahesh Bhatt’s Junoon (1992) but eventually, lost out on these offers.
Within a short period, Deepak Malhotra was practically out of Bollywood and only one movie he had signed in early ’90s – N. Chandra’s Tejasvini – saw a theatrical release in 1994. Deepak played a supporting character in this cop drama and his voice wasn’t as bad as Lamhe but by this time, it was too late!! The Khans, Kumar, Devgan and the new lot had already taken over Bollywood…
Deepak continued to get good work as a model in the ’90s. He married his long-time friend supermodel Lubna Adams in mid ’90s and also changed his name to Dino Martelli, as he was often referred as an Italian stud by the media. Deepak took the praise literally and adopted this new Italian sounding name!!
Both Dino and Lubna, migrated to Italy, the global fashion hub, and made a career in fashion and garment industry. Then in 2004, he returned to Mumbai and tied up with Sabeena Chopra to start Sesso, a short-lived restaurant.
Later, Dino shifted to the US with wife Lubna and grew his garment business there. He has two grown up sons called Kian and Kyle. Kian has worked as a model with designer Manish Malhotra, taking forward his father’s rich legacy.
Deepak Malhotra is no longer connected with Bollywood and has no intention to face the camera again as an actor. His one bad line “Pallo” ruined his career forever. Truly shows how hard it is to be an actor!!
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