Kabir Bedi turns 70 on January 16; rumour has it that he'll be introducing his fourth wife at the birthday bash
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 13, 2016)

Kabir Bedi's baritone goes one decibel up when he talks about his "Annual 50th Birthday Bash" which he is hosting on Saturday.

The veteran actor turns 70 on January 16 with a big party at a suburban hotel in Bandra. Invites have been sent out to the family, fraternity and even school friends. A Sufi singer is being flown in from Delhi and the evening will be a daawat fit for a king.

Buzz is, he's planning to secretly tie the knot with live-in partner, Parveen Dusanj, and the announcement will be made on birthday.

"Hahaha, that's just a rumour but I'm sure the marriage will happen one day soon," he guffaws.

The man who found plenty of admirers both in the East and the West, has been married thrice before, to the late Protima Bedi, Susan Humphreys and Nikki Bedi. After he divorced Nikki in 2005, he began dating British-born Parveen Dusanj who is 29 years younger than him. The couple have been together for nine years and Parveen is already no less than a wife to him.

Prod him on bringing in the New Year and he retorts, "I have made no resolutions, none at all. I simply make decisions and stick by them."

The high point of the past year was the re-launch of his Italian TV mini-series, Sandokan. "Sandokan led to Hollywood and opened the doors in the West to me. It always brings back many wonderful memories and I'm delighted it's now available online and on e-commerce sites," he says.

The actor will be seen as the baddie in Ashutosh Gowariker's period love story, Mohenjo Daro. He plays Pooja Hegde's father and the man responsible for the untimely death of Hrithik Roshan's father. "Working with Hrithik is special. He is an actor who has grown with every film. I want to chart new horizons too and would love to do a sci-fi next, since that's the only genre I haven't touched yet," he muses.

Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 23, 2015)

Kabir Bedi tasted international success in the 1970s with Sandokan, a six-part Italian TV series based on the novels of Emilio Salgari. Forty years on, the actor is set to release a DVD of the show for his Indian fans. Available in a dubbed Hindi version and the original Italian with English subtitles, it will also go online in December.

“Sandokan opened the doors of world cinema for me. I enjoyed an international career spanning over 25 years and three continents. I returned to India six years ago and it seemed like an appropriate time to release the show, so my fans here know what made me so famous abroad,“ says a nostalgic Kabir. He adds that Sandokan is still successful in Europe, having passed on from one generation to the next. Fans recognised him in Bulgaria when he was shooting for an upcoming Shah Rukh Khan film. And how does he feel about his '70s sex symbol image now? “Every man has the right to feel sexy, so do I,“ laughs the 69-year-old veteran.

Sandokan is about an Indian prince who loses his kingdom and goes on to head a group of pirates who take on the British army. Will the Indian audience connect with the subject? “Of course they will, it's an interesting concept and still relevant,“ Bedi reasons. He's open to converting the show into a film.

He's also looking forward to Bazodee, an English Indie with Soca music legend Machel Montano, and Ashutosh Gowariker's Mohenjo Daro.