Birthday Wishes to Danny Denzongpa

Born: 25 February 1948  Gangtok
Danny Denzongpa has acted in around 190 Hindi films since 1971. His film career spans more than 4 decades. He has also starred in some international projects, the most famous being Seven Years in Tibet where he acted alongside Hollywood actor Brad Pitt. His best known villainous roles are from Dhund, 36 Ghante, Bandish, Jeeo Aur Jeene Do, Dharm Aur Qanoon, Agneepath and is remembered for his performances in positive roles like in Fakira, Chor Machaye Shor, Devata (1978 film), Kalicharan, Bulundi and Adhikar (1986 film).His directorial venture Phir Wahi Raat was considered among the top five best horror suspense films of Hindi Cinema.

Denzongpa was born on 25 February 1948 into a Buddhist family in Gangtok, the capital of the Kingdom of Sikkim.  He did his schooling from Birla Vidya Mandir, Nainital and thereafter completed his college from St Joseph's College, Darjeeling, in 1964. Denzongpa's love of horses and horse riding began at an early age, as his family was into horse breeding. He is also a painter, a writer and a sculptor.
He nursed an ambition to join the Indian Army but joined Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. He decided to change his name to a simpler sounding "Danny", on recommendation from his then-colleague Jaya Bachchan, as his original name – Tshering Phintso Denzongpa – was found to be hard to pronounce.
He started out with B.R. Ishara's Zaroorat in 1971 (released in 1972) which was his debut film. He got his major break in Gulzar's Mere Apne (1971), where he had positive role. He had his first major negative role in B.R.Chopra's Dhundh (1973), where he played the role of a crippled and frustrated husband, which showed his power to emote. Danny, in the 1970s period, was increasingly open to do versatile roles, but chose to do more positive roles. He played the second lead hero and had more positive roles in commercially successful critically acclaimed films in seventies, like Chor Machaye Shor, 36 Ghante, Fakira, Sangram (1976), Kalicharan, Kala Sona and Devata (1978).
After his performance in the film Devata (1978) he started getting more significant lengthy roles. He was simultaneously part of big budget films like Aashiq Hoon Baharon Ka, Paapi, Bandish, The Burning Train and Chunoti in negative roles.His most applauded negative characters are in Phir Wahi Raat as Ashok, Dharm Aur Qanoon (1984) as SP Karan, Kanoon Kya Karega (1984) as Raghuvir Singh, Andar Baahar (1984) as Shera, Oonche Log (1985) as Thakur Maan Singh, Aandhi Toofan (1986), Bhagwaan Dada (1986) as Gangwaa, Agneepath (1990) as Kancha Cheena, Hum (1991) as Bakhtawar, Ghatak: Lethal as Kaatya, Krantiveer (1994) as Chatur Singh , Pukar (2000) as Abhrush and Indian as Shankar Singhania. He was pitted against Pran in the film Sanam Bewafa and 1942: A Love Story. His command over the Hindi language came in handy in films such as Sawan Kumar's Sanam Bewafa and Mukul Anand's Khuda Gawah.
At a time, when he was increasingly doing negative lead roles, Rajkumar Santoshi cast him as the positive role in China Gate (1998). In the early 2000s, Danny gave stellar performances in movies such as Asoka and 16 December (2002). He is an accomplished singer having sung with Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi and Asha Bhosle, three stalwarts of Indian music with music.
In 2003, Denzongpa was awarded the Padma Shree, India's fourth highest civilian honour.