Destroyed myself as actor with my drinking habit: Dharmendra

The 77-year-old veteran, who has again teamed up with sons Bobby and Sunny for his upcoming release "Yamla Pagla Deewana 2", said he now understands the process of filmmaking and takes it seriously.

"I don't drink these days. I had destroyed myself as an actor with my drinking habit in the past. I believe in humanity now and have learnt the business of filmmaking. We three (Sunny, Bobby and I) worked really hard for this film. We are leaving no stone unturned for the promotions," he said during the promotion of "Yamla Pagla Deewana 2" in the capital.

Dharmendra bid adieu to alcohol in 2011 keeping in mind his deteriorating health conditions.

The film is the sequel to the 2011 hit film of the same name and Dharmendra will reprise his role of conman. But he reveals that he wanted to play Sunny's character in the film because he is romancing a beautiful actress in the film.

"We auditioned many girls for playing Sunny's love interest in the film. We found beautiful Kristina Akheeva for him and I got jealous. I really wanted to play his character so that I could have romanced her," he said.

Dharmenda, who is known for his tough roles, said he decided to come up with the action-comedy franchise "Yamla Pagla Deewana" after his highly-emotional sports drama "Apne" did not do well at the box-office.

"We three came together on-screen for the first time with 'Apne'. People liked our film but they said it was too emotional. So, I thought that next time we will do a comedy film and make my audience laugh," Dharmendra, who had tickled everybody's funny bone in cult classic 'Chupke Chupke'.

Asked whether he is thinking to continue the franchise with its third sequel, Dharmendra, who is also the producer of the film, said, "We are looking forward to the third part and it will be much better and bigger than this. But let's see the second instalment's response first."

"Yamla Pagla Dewaana 2" will hit theatres this Friday.