Prem Chopra is a name in the Hindi film industry that reverberates as one of the most evil and dangerous villains ever portrayed on celluloid. The talented actor rose to fame by being the recurrent antagonist in most of Rajesh Khanna’s films, such as Doli, Upkaar, Do Raaste, Ajnabee, Souten among others. His iconic tagline, ‘Prem naam hai mera… Prem Chopra’ became a historical marker of his presence in the cinema world. However, the real Prem Chopra beyond the celluloid was nowhere close to the bad-guy characters that he portrayed. Nevertheless, his bad-guy image did take a toll on various aspects of his personal life.
Prem Chopra recalls his father getting irked by his reputation as a villain
In an interview with Bollywood Thikana, Prem Chopra retrospected how his career in the films as a top-notch villain tainted his personal life. He highlighted how back in those days, people used to actually blur the lines between reel and real and would be afraid by the sight of him. Moreover, he also recalled a moment when his own father, got irked and was taken aback, as he witnessed people’s reaction on seeing his son back at home. He mentioned:
“I’d gone to meet my father in Chandigarh once. There’s a Panchkula garden in Chandigarh, and we would go there to walk. This one time, we noticed four or five men approaching us from the other side. They recognised me, and started saying, ‘Hide the women, hide the women, Prem Chopra is coming’. My father was surprised by the reputation my characters had created of me.”