DYK Pankaj Dheer’s Family Lost Everything Due To His Father’s Promise To Geeta Bali On Her Deathbed?

Pankaj Dheer, who passed away on October 15 after battling with cancer, was popularly known for his role as Karna in BR Chopra’s Mahabharat. The actor’s work has always been appreciated by the audience and the love he and his family received was one of its kind in the Hindi film industry. Pankaj had a difficult life and there was a time his family lost everything because of his father’s promise to Geeta Bali. This happened when his father, filmmaker CL Dheer’s movie, which was partially shot, got shelved after the lead actress, Geeta Bali, passed away.

In an old interview with Lehren Retro, Pankaj Dheer said that his father, CL Dheer, joined the film industry in 1941. After assisting V Shantaram for a few years, he directed several movies like Bahu Beti, Rain Basera, Aakhri Raat and Zindagi, to name a few. He recalled a heartbreaking chapter of their life, which happened before the release of Raano, starring Dharmendra and Geeta Bali in the leads. Pankaj recalled his father and Geeta Bali were co-producers in the movie and had inevested equal amount of money in it. His father was also the director of Raano. Pankaj then said, “Almost 6-7 days of work was left so Geeta Bali suggested that he could finish everything else, and finish the rest of her scenes at the end. The entire film was done and ready, just 3 days of Geeta Bali’s scenes were left. You can call it bad luck… Geeta Bali got infected with smallpox in Punjab.”

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Bali was in Punjab with the rest of the crew and was brought to Mumbai after her illness was diagnosed. Recalling the incident, Pankaj then said, “She couldn’t recover. She asked my father for a promise on her deathbed that after I die, you will let go of this film, and my father honoured his promise.”

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After Geeta Bali’s death, Dilip Kumar and Meena Kumari came to see his father. Pankaj then shared that they tried to convince his father to complete the rest of the film with Meena Kumari and release it. But his father kept the promise even though the industry’s top-most actors tried to convince him. The actor said, “Dilip saab suggested that he would come on screen and plead with the audience, asking them to accept Meena Kumari in Geeta Bali’s role after the tragedy. But my father was insistent that this film is gone with Geeta. So all the money that was invested it was gone. My father went into a shell after that. After this, our family went through a tough time.”