Gopal Bedi, popularly known as Ranjeet, made his Bollywood debut with Sawan Bhadon (1970 film). He went on to play iconic roles in films like Farebi, Nagin, Amar Akbar Anthony, Naya Daur, Suhaag, Rocky, Sarfarosh, Housefull franchise etc. In the early 70s, he rose to fame with his villainous roles and continued to rule Bollywood in the 80s as well. Ranjeet was best known for doing molestation scenes which also gave him the infamous title “Ranjeet -The Rapist”. While he was always portrayed as the ruthless villain, he was personally fed up doing the ‘same thing’.
In a recent conversation with senior journalist Bharathi S Pradhan, the veteran actor revealed that he once had 80 films on the floor at the same time. In some films, he had big roles, while in some he had tiny appearances. He told, “There was a time when I had about 80 films on the floor and I was working with all the top stars like Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Sunil Dutt, Raaj Kumar, Rishi Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor, Feroz Khan, Sanjay Khan, Amitabh Bachchan. Most of my scenes were molestation, pulling sarees of heroines. I used to joke that I did one film where I pulled Moushami Chatterjee’s black saree and they could use the leftover footage in the next film. I was once fed up doing the same thing. I asked myself that for whom do I work so much. My mother had come to visit me. When she had to go back, I asked my driver to drop her to the airport. My father yelled at me and said that they don’t shift to Bombay because I don’t have time.”
He further mentioned that he had hectic schedule because the ‘heroes’ of the film were not punctual and therefore, it would be a tedious task for him to adjust with their abrupt schedule. Ranjeet said, “I always honor my commitment. But all the heroes, they used to have late night drinking, while heroine was somewhere around like Reena Roy making parathas, Parveen Babi giving drinks, Moushami used to make fish. So, these actors used to pack up, come to my house and party. Meanwhile, I used to work day and night because I had to adjust my dates with all these actors. For the 9 am shift, they would come at 1 pm. So I started working in shifts.”
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