Dharmendra’s Heartbreak at Partition: The Untold Story of His First Crush, Hamida
In a rare glimpse into his early years, Bollywood legend Dharmendra has opened up about a youthful romance that predated his iconic marriages to Prakash Kaur and Hema Malini—one marked by silent longing and severed by the tragedy of India’s 1947 Partition.
The 89-year-old screen icon, who recently sparked concern among fans with a short hospitalization for age-related breathlessness, returned home on November 12, 2025, much to the relief of his family. Hema Malini, his wife of over four decades, publicly shared her gratitude following his discharge, quelling earlier false reports of his passing. Yet amid the spotlight on his enduring partnership with the actress, Dharmendra’s reflections on his initial foray into love reveal a more tender, unfulfilled chapter from his village roots in pre-Partition Punjab.
During an appearance on Salman Khan’s game show Dus Ka Dum alongside his son Bobby Deol, Dharmendra reminisced about Hamida, the daughter of his schoolteacher. At the time, he was a sixth-grader nursing a quiet infatuation for the eighth-grade girl, stealing furtive looks and daydreaming of sitting beside her. “We kept saying things in our hearts,” he recalled. “We sighed inwardly. She had no idea.” Too bashful to confess, the boy channeled his emotions into a poem, penned in the innocence of those school days.
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As Bobby brought up the verses on air, Dharmendra clarified their origin: “I wrote it when I was studying, before the Partition happened.” He then shared the poignant lines: “I was small, my age was innocent. What she was, I didn’t know. I longed to go near her, to sit with her. She was an eighth-grader, I was in sixth. She was our schoolteacher’s daughter, named Hamida.”
Fate, however, offered no happy resolution. The cataclysmic events of Partition in 1947 forced Hamida’s family to relocate to Pakistan, while Dharmendra’s stayed behind in India. The two never reunited, leaving the actor with lingering memories of what might have been. The poem alludes to fleeting interactions—brief exchanges laced with youthful bewilderment. “She would just smile, and I’d go closer,” he recited. “She’d stay silent, and I’d bow my head. She’d ask one thing, I’d say something else. She’d say, ‘Don’t be sad, Dharam. There’s still time; everything will be fine in your exams.’ Then she’d walk away, and I’d keep watching. She’d disappear, and I’d wonder, ‘What’s the question, friend?'”
Dharmendra’s candid recounting, preserved in episodes of Dus Ka Dum, underscores the era’s upheavals, where personal dreams often yielded to historical forces. Though his life later blossomed into a storied career and family legacy, this early heartbreak endures as a testament to love’s fragile beginnings.