10 interesting UNKNOWN facts about birthday girl Hema Malini

Three biggies of Bollywood were born in October. Rekha (10), Amitabh Bachchan (11 Oct) and Hema Malini (16 Oct). The evergreen Hema who celebrates her 66th birthday today and no matter how old she turns with every passing year, she will always remain our dream girl. Here's a look at 10 unknown facts of Hema. Hema Malini was never academically inclined and is believed to have got into acting after class 10. When Hema was 15, she was considered for a Tamil film Venniradai but got rejected by the director Sridhar who thought she was too thin. The role later went to Jayalalitha. Her Bollywood debut was opposite Raj Kapoor in Sapno Ke Saudagar. The term dream girl was coined to promote Hema in Bollywood and she has been our dream girl ever since. Hema is a very close friend of actress Rekha and groomed the latter when she was new in Bollywood. They stayed together for 2 years in Bombay and Hema even used to braid Rekha's long hair. Hema had many suitors in Bollywood including Jeetendra and Sanjeev Kumar both of whom proposed marriage to her. Jeetendra and Hema almost got married until Dharmendra coaxed Hema out of the relationship while Jeetendra went back to his girlfriend, Shobha who is his wife today. Hema met her future husband Dharmendra on the sets of Tum Haseen Main Jawan. They worked together in 42 films. During the shoot of Sholay, Dharam would pay technicians Rs 100 to make mistakes so that he could hug Hema more in multiple retakes. Interestingly, Dharmendra wanted to play the role of Thakur Baldev Singh in Sholay but later changed his mind after the director informed him that Sanjeev Kumar would play Veeru and get the girl (Hema). A madly in love Dharmendra had no option but to play Veeru. Both Hema and Dharmendra converted to Islam as Dharmendra's first wife Prakash Kaur refused to divorce him. Wish her a very Happy Birthday in the comment section below!!!