Hemant Birje

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.

In today’s Bollywood, every hero needs to have a good physique and chiselled body to flaunt on screen. Most believe this trend started with Salman Khan making a bare-chested entry in Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya (1998) dancing to the tune of ‘Oh oh jaane jaana’. But do you know a certain actor with as much a robust physique, had gone bare chested in his debut film as early as 1985? Well, this actor is Hemant Birje and the movie is titled Adventures of Tarzan. This film is now synonymous with Hemant to such extent that people still call him Tarzan in the real world.

Hemant Birje was born on 19th August, 1964 in a Maharashtrian family in Pune. His father Anantrao was a Government employee while mother Indumati was a homemaker. Hemant graduated from Pune’s Wadia College. Like his father who was a fitness enthusiast, Hemant was interested in body building right from an early age and was crowned Mr. India in 1983. Hemant wished for a career in body-building and acting was never in his mind until the role of Tarzan unexpectedly came his way…

Producer-Director B Subhash had already given hits like Disco Dancer (1982) and Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki (1984) with Mithun Chakraborty and wanted to start his next Dance Dance (1987) at the earliest but the busy Mithun asked for a year to complete his pending projects. Subhash then decided to make a quickie low budget movie in this spare time and Adventures of Tarzan (Tarzan in short) was conceived. Initially, Mahesh Anand was considered for the lead role but later dropped as he had already appeared in two films and Subhash wanted a fresh face. Thus, the search for Tarzan began…

Around this time, Hemant Birje happened to visit Deccan College where the legendary Dev Anand was shooting his film Hum Naujawan (1985). Impressed with his personality, some of the unit members advised Hemant to try his luck in Bollywood. Somehow, B. Subhash got to know about Hemant and sent his staff to bring him to Mumbai. On the day of ‘Rang Panchami’ festival, Hemant was high on ‘bhaang’ and enjoying with his friends when a taxi came and stood in front of him with a request to travel to Mumbai immediately for the Tarzan audition. Hemant took a few minutes to freshen up and got in the cab.

At the audition, Hemant saw hundreds of well bodied youngsters dressed as Tarzan, who were shouting and yelling like the fictional hero. He was the lucky one to get selected and B. Subhash handed him one thousand five hundred rupees as signing amount on the spot. Moreover, Hemant was asked to remain in Mumbai till the shooting got completed. Everything from clothes to food was arranged for Hemant here and he didn’t return to Pune until Tarzan was completed in nine months flat. Incidentally, B. Subhash liked his soft-spoken nature and this was exactly what he was looking for in his hero – a tough looking guy from outside with a soft nature inside. The reason Subhash didn’t allow Hemant to travel back to Pune was probably, the fear that he might change his mind once back home.

In one of his later interviews, Hemant recalled that in those days, he had long hair like Tarzan which might have helped him bag the coveted movie. As a kid, he used to watch Tarzan movies with his cousins, bunk school and go for a swim in the nearby lake and swing on trees like the jungle hero. He believes the Tarzan movie was made for him.

Nevertheless, B. Subhash imparted proper acting training to Hemant and cast him opposite then newcomer – the bold and beautiful- Kimi Katkar. Tarzan was made in record time and became one of the biggest hits of 1985 on release. Kimi Katkar’s sexy look was the movie’s highlight but Hemant Birje also stole the show with his macho personality and breath-taking physique.

When B. Subhash started shooting Tarzan, there was a curiosity factor in the film industry about the hero who would play the ever-popular titular character. During its shooting at Essel Studio, the nearby unit of Subhash Ghai’s Karma (1986) came to see Hemant. Sanjay Dutt got inspired by him and would come to watch him regularly. Salman Khan, who had just started body building then, looked up to Hemant Birje.

Next, every youngster of that time wanted a body like Hemant and many of them hit the gym getting inspired by his rough and tough figure. In the 2014 Marathi blockbuster Timepass which was set in the ’80s era, there is a scene in a gym where a few fitness enthusiasts talk about Tarzan having released and the solid impact of Birje leading them to pursue bodybuilding.

Hemant followed up Tarzan with Tahkhana (1986), which was produced and directed by Ramsay Brothers. The film was a typical horrex (horror+ sex) entertainer but didn’t taste as much success as Ramsays’ earlier hits. Nevertheless, Birje was flooded with movie offers but instead of being choosy, he signed all the movies which came his way. As many as one hundred and seven films!! These included some B graders like Dilruba Tangewali (1987) and Bijli Aur Toofan (1988), which didn’t help his career in anyway.

The year 1988 saw as many as ten releases for Hemant namely Veerana, Kabrastan, Som Mangal Shani, Geeta Ki Saugandh, Aag Ke Sholay, Maar Dhaad, Paanch Fauladi, Aaj Ke Angaarey, Commando and Mardangi.

Among these films, Veerana proved to be a huge hit but surprisingly, the film’s success didn’t benefit any of its actors. Commando and Aaj Ke Angaarey made by his mentor B. Subhash, were also moderate box office earners but Commando relied totally on the stardom of Mithun Chakraborty and Mandakini while Hemant Birje was reduced to just a supporting character. In Aaj Ke Angaarey, Hemant had a small role of a masked man in the villainous gang who has change of heart and later, dies while saving the kidnapped children. This film didn’t exactly create ripples at the box office and was only a “just ran” type. His other multiple B graders which released that year, sank without a trace.

After this, Hemant got offers mainly from small time filmmakers. Reflecting back, he believes it was a big mistake on his part to sign Ramsay movies at an early stage of his career as he got the B grade tag due to that, which was difficult to shake off. Hemant recalls B. Subhash not being happy with him for signing Ramsay’s Veerana.

By the end of the ’80s, Hemant Birje’s stardom was over and he was relegated to low budget flicks which used to release primarily in small centres. One big multistarrer he appeared at that time was Lashkar (1989) with Dev Anand, Sumeet Saigal, Javed Jaffrey, Aditya Panscholi, Madhavi and Sonam. Though Lashkar was a box office success, it didn’t help Hemant’s career at all as he was one amongst the many heroes and the focus remained on Dev Anand.

Another multistarrer film featuring Hemant Birje was Kaun Kare Kurbanie (1991) where he again had a small supporting role. In a recent interview, Hemant narrated a surprising incident during this film where its lead actors got intimidated by his towering physique. It seems superstar Dharmendra saw Hemant on the sets of Kaun Kare Kurbanie and sternly told producer-director Arjun Hingorani that he won’t do any scenes with him. Hingorani, Dharmendra’s best friend as well as mentor, finally managed to convince him for the shot. The ‘90s star Govinda also threw tantrums to work with Hemant Birje on the sets of this film and another one titled Zordaar (1996). Later, Hemant got replaced from Zordaar (1996). Kaun Kare Kurbanie had a delayed release in 1991 and turned out to be a commercial disaster.

Soon enough, Hemant realised that meaty roles had dried up for him and so, he decided to take up negative characters. He played the main antagonist in the Akshay Kumar starrer Ikke Pe Ikka (1994). The film didn’t do well at the ticket windows but gave a new avenue of villainy to Hemant. He then went on to play many negative characters throughout the ’90s. Deepak Balraj Vij’s Hafta Vasuli (1998) remains one of his most memorable films from this phase in which he played the villain called Tamancha Bihari and was given special credit in the film along with this name

From mid-’90s, Hemant became part of Mithun Chakraborty’s Ooty factory products which were made in quick succession with practically the same storyline. These movies were revenge dramas and always had bunch of antagonists like Gulshan Grover, Mohan Joshi, Gavin Packard and Hemant Birje being pitted against the hero Mithun Chakraborty who invariably, played the honest cop. Hemant Birje became a regular in these films with fiery hot titles like Angaara (1996), Muqadar (1996), Suraj (1997), Sher-E-Hindustan (1997), Hitler (1998), Sikandar Sadak Ka (1999), Maa Kasam (1999), etc. Hemant considers Mithun to be his close buddy with whom he has worked in maximum movies.

In the new millennium, Hemant Birje did quite a few B grade movies which went unnoticed as they were released in small towns only and the family audience generally stayed away from them.

In 2004, Hemant surprised everyone by making an appearance in Salman Khan’s Garv which was a small role with no dialogues but still managed to grab the audience attention. He played the main villain Mukesh Rishi’s younger brother in it. His fans were taken by surprise to see Hemant Birje in a such a big film after a long time. Garv remains his last mainstream appearance.

Just two months before Garv, Hemant was also seen in the multistarrer actioner Lakeer (2004) but that movie bombed badly at the box office. His comeback to mainstream Bollywood with Garv and Lakeer also didn’t work. Riding the sequel wave at that time, Hemant decided to make a sequel to Tarzan and relaunch himself as the hero.

The Tarzan sequel titled Return of Tarzan was officially announced in a grand mahurat in February 2008. The event was held in a five-star hotel in Mumbai where Hemant came dressed as Tarzan. At the mahurat, Hemant disclosed that he would not only play the lead role but also produce and direct the film himself. Considering his age and market value along with the time duration of twenty three years between the original and the planned sequel, the press asked Hemant why he didn’t choose a younger hero to play Tarzan to which he promptly replied that the original story featuring him, would be carried forward after twenty three years in the sequel.

Hemant Birje wanted to complete Return of Tarzan quickly by shooting it in the jungles of Maharashtra but due to certain PETA regulations, he had to shift his shooting abroad to Africa which proved to be a major pinch for his pocket. The film was in the making for about a year but after that, there was no news on its progress and till date, it is not clear whether Birje completed this film or it was shelved in between.

Hemant also faced an unusual situation during this film’s shooting. A struggling actor came to his office one day and asked for a role in this movie. When Hemant politely refused stating there was no role to offer, the frustrated guy stabbed Hemant in the stomach twice. Luckily, Hemant survived the attack and recovered after sometime.

After this incident, Hemant Birje kept out of limelight. He continued working in lesser-known films which hardly had a major release. One such movie of his which created a stir, was titled Who’s There? Kaun Hai Wahan (2011). The film’s poster attracted controversy as the killer was shown pointing knife towards Jesus Christ on the cross which offended the Catholic community. They asked for a ban on the movie but the matter was later settled with the posters replaced and Who’s There? finally secured a release. Hemant played an important role of a Catholic priest in this film.

Apart from Hindi films, Hemant also acted in regional films down South and in Marathi. The Telugu movie Simha (2010) had him in a pivotal role. He also did TV serials like Junoon and Hindustani in the ’90s. In 2017, Hemant Birje signed Surya which was the first film he was doing in his mother tongue Marathi language. This film faced inordinate delays and made it to theatres only in January 2023. He played the main antagonist in it and was prominently featured in the movie posters.

During the promotional event of Surya, Hemant disclosed that this wasn’t the first Marathi film offered to him and much earlier, actor-director Sachin Pilgaonkar had come with an offer but things didn’t work out.

Today at fifty-eight years, Hemant Birje still loves body-building and has kept himself super fit just like the younger heroes. He gives his nod to web series and some exciting film offers which come his way.

Hemant lives in Mumbai with wife Reshma and his two children – daughter Sonia and son Bobby. Sonia has done theatre with Payal Goga Kapoor (veteran actor Goga Kapoor’s daughter) and currently, is well known as DJ Sonia. Bobby works for a leading production house in Bollywood.

Hemant recollected his past in a recent interview that whenever he would come home from work, the building kids would yell like Tarzan on seeing him which gave his wife a signal that he is back home. Indeed, Hemant Birje is and will always remain the Tarzan of Bollywood. No doubt about it!!