The one touching moment of this year’s IIFA (International Indian Film Academy Awards) at Yorkshire, England early this month was the emotional outburst of Dharmendra, flanked by his two actor sons— Sunny and Bobby — on stage on the day of the awards ceremony. It was so spontaneous that the gathering of about 30,000 people stood up to applaud the man who has walked like a colossus on the Indian screen for nearly five decades now.
“The film industry has almost forgotten me while many of my contemporaries have gone ahead. This is the first time I was invited to an award function and this Lifetime achievement award in an international forum is a great honour for me”, said Dharmendra while the receiving award from his Sholay mate Amitabh Bachchan.
“I have been in the film industry for nearly 50 years now. I have never been part of any rat race. Yes, I do roar occasionally, but I do not know how to bulldoze my way through and hog the limelight always”, he told Deccan Herald earlier at a media gathering to introduce his comeback vehicle Apne.
“Many in the industry know me, but they have ignored me for nearly six to seven years now. My sons are also like me. We wish we had mastered the tricks of the trade.
“Unfortunately, I was driven away from the camera, but my heart was always there. Now with Apne, I am coming back to face the camera after seven years. I have a point to prove and my roar will be louder this time”,  says the man who persuaded Ramesh Sippy to cast Amitabh as his co-star in Sholay. A reluctant Sippy was forced, literally bullied, by Dharam, and Amitabh finally got the role, a fact acknowledged by Amitabh himself on stage.
Apne is unique as this is the first time that all three Deols are appearing in a film together. Dharmendra and Sunny have acted together previously in Sunny (1984), Sultanat (1986) and Kshatriya (1993).
Sunny and Bobby have appeared together in Dillagi (1999) and a couple of other films but Apne, due for release on June 29,  will see all three of them together. “My ‘seven year itch’ is finally coming through. We almost play ourselves in the film. You know Sunny is an introvert and he rarely exhibits his emotions, but Bobby is quite opposite. He is naughty and will take any risk to achieve his goal. Our chemistry on screen will touch any heart, I assure you”, Dharam adds.
Apne is a story of a lion-hearted father and his two sons. Director Anil Sharma has worked with multiple scripts. “It almost took us five years going through various scripts before finalising this one” , says Sunny.
“We shot at many locations though the story is based in Chandigarh and Punjab. There are a few scenes shot in Bangkok, Australia and Toronto. Shilpa Shetty is paired with Sunny Deol and Katrina Kaif with Bobby. Dharmendra is Baldev Singh Choudhary and Kiron Kher is his wife.
The story goes like this: an ex-boxer Dharmendra has had a setback in his career. He wanted to realise his dream with his son Sunny, but a financial crunch comes in the way. Dharam trains a local boy to get into a media-hyped boxing show, but he ditches him in the last minute.
His younger son Karan (Bobby Deol) is interested in music and has just launched his first music album. But, he sacrifices his music and takes up the gloves to make his father’s dream come true.
But just when he is about to become a world champion in boxing, tragedy strikes and Dharmendra is about to lose his dear Bobby. 
Now it is the turn of his other son, Sunny, to step in, achieve what seemed to be impossible and brings his father the happiness of a lifetime.
Himesh Reshammiya’s music and Kabir Lal’s cinematography are the highlights, but Tinu Verma has worked very hard on the action scenes, says director Anil Sharma.
Of course, what he did not say was that this film is an ‘adaptation’ of the Tamil hit, Kumaran, s/o Mahalakshmi, starring Prakash Raj and Jayam Ravi. Interestingly in this film also a father and his two sons were involved.
While the father Mohan was the producer, one of the sons Ravi was the hero and another son Raja directed the movie. It was a hit in Tamil and one can only hope Apne does the magic for the Deols too. All three of them badly need a hit right now!