Denzongpa was born into a Buddhist family in Gangtok. In his younger days, he dreamt of serving the Indian army.
Proceeding slowly and steadily towards his goal, Denzongpa won the Best Cadet Award from West Bengal and even participated in the Republic Day parade.
However, after looking at the consequences of the Sino-Indian war in early 1960’s, Denzongpa’s mother did not allow him to join the armed forces. As a result, a desolated Denzongpa withdrew his application from the prestigious Armed Forces Medical College, Pune and instead joined the Film & Television Institue of India (FTII), Pune.
At FTII, Denzongpa became very good friends with Jaya Bachchan, who happened to be his classmate. On Jaya’s suggestion, ‘Tshering Phintso Denzongpa’ adopted a simpler name- Danny!
Denzongpa, who was not well-acquainted with Hindi found it very tough to land up roles initially in his career. Adding to his misery was an ‘unlike-Bollywood face’, which, according to the directors of that time, was not suitable for any role except for that of a servant.
After struggling in some films, Denzongpa finally came into some limelight when he played the negative role in the 1972 film- Dhundh.
Interestingly, the iconic role of ‘Gabbar’ was first offered to Denzongpa. However, since he was busy shooting for Feroz Khan’s Dharmatma, he could not accept the offer.
His directorial debut, Phir Wahi Raat, starring Rajesh Khanna became a huge success at the box-office.
The actor also has a prospering business of breweries in states like Sikkim, Orissa and Guwahati.
In his 4-decade-long career, Denzongpa has acted in over 210 films.
His film, Frozen (2007), was premiered at 34 international film festivals and garnered as many as 18 awards.
Although Denzongpa has acted in a number of films alongside Amitabh Bachchan, he was initially reluctant to act opposite ‘Big B’. In an interview, he said that acting alongside the latter in those days was a big risk to one’s popularity, because if the movie became a success then senior Bachchan would get all the credit and if the movie turns out to be a flop, the other actors had to bear the brunt of failure.
Also a singer, Denzongpa has recorded many tracks with the likes of Asha Bhonsle, Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi.
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