Father’s Day 2021: Apne, Bunty Aur Babli And Munna Bhai MBBS; 6 Films Where Real Life Father-Son Duo Came Together On Screen

While a father-daughter relationship is more of an emotional one, a father-son duo is more like buddies. All a father dreams is to teach his son all the things that he did in his life and instil the manners and dignity in him that can make him a true gentleman.

And for some of our actor fathers in Bollywood, that dream is to teach and carry forward their acting legacy through their sons. Sometimes, it even means the collision of reel and real life with the real-life father-son duos coming together on screen, and here are such few examples:

The Deol family has had some amazing, talented and one of the most popular actors of their time in the family. While Dharmendra ruled the industry for almost three decades, Sunny Deol took the industry by storm in the ’80s and ’90s with Bobby Deol carrying forward that legacy in the late ’90s and early 2000s. But even after being successful actors and producers, it was in Anil Sharma’s 2007 sports drama Apne, that the trio came together on screen for the first time. The relationships in the film between the three was the same as in real life but it showed the fictional story of a boxer with his kids trying to fulfil his dream. The trio collaborated again on the comedy Yamla Pagla Deewana and its sequel, and now with Apne 2, they are all set to welcome the third generation as well with Karan Deol.

Amitabh Bachchan is one of the biggest superstars that the Hindi film industry has ever seen, while Abhishek is one of the most talented actors out there from his generation. The duo has appeared in a couple of films together, with films like Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna and the special one, Paa, where the roles were reversed. However, it all started when they first came together on screen for Yash Raj Films’ Bunty Aur Babli. The film saw Abhishek as a con man and Amitabh as a cop on the hunt for him, but what everyone remembers the most from the film is Sr Bachchan’s chemistry with his son and future daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, in the song Kajra re.

Legendary actor Sunil Dutt and his son Sanjay Dutt were credited in three films together before they got to have scenes together in their first film, Rajkumar Hirani’s Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. The comedy told the story of a local Mumbai goon who takes admission in a medical college just to take revenge from the college’s dean, and saw Sunil and Sanjay bring out their real-life relationship alive on screen. However, it remained the only film in which they could appear together before Sunil Dutt’s demise. The film paved a new way for Sanjay’s career and gave him an image makeover, reenergising his career. And who can forget their magical ‘jadoo ki jhappi’ on screen. The scene was recreated with Paresh Rawal and Ranbir Kapoor in Sanjay’s biopic Sanju, and that scene still gives goosebumps.  

Rishi Kapoor was the sweetheart and lover boy of Bollywood during his time in the ’70s and ’80s, and when his son Ranbir Kapoor made his debut in the 2007 film Saawariya, he carried forward that legacy of his. The duo finally appeared together on screen in the 2013 film Besharam, where they were also accompanied by Rishi’s wife Neetu Kapoor. The film saw Ranbir as a car thief while Rishi and Neetu as a cop couple in search of him. The film failed to strike a chord with the audience and tanked at the box office, however, even though the father-son duo starred in the film on opposite sides of the law, at the end they united as a happy family as Rishi and Neetu’s characters adopted Ranbir’s Babli.

Jeetendra was a superstar in his career that spanned over three decades. And when his son, Tusshar, made his debut in Bollywood in 2001, two years later the duo got to face the camera together in their home production, the horror-thriller Kucch To Hai. They brought their real-life relationship to the screen as Jeetendra essayed the role of Tusshar’s father. And even though his role was brief in the film, the whole family got to work together on this one project.