Acclaimed actor Kabir Bedi, who lived outside India for almost 30 years due to his international projects, has shared that he had to rush back to India in the late 1980s to keep his relationships alive.

"'Sandokan' gave me my fame in Europe... it made me a big star there and gave me the means to push onto America which led to all the work I did there from the 'James Bond' film to 'The Bold and Beautiful' (TV series) chapter," Kabir told IANS.

The late 1970s Italian TV serial "Sandokan" starred Kabir in the lead role and it took Europe and Latin America by storm. The six-hour mini-series was dubbed in Hindi for its DVD version, which released last year in India.


"In between, I had rushed back to India to keep my relationships alive and to do 'Khoon Bhari Maang' (1988). But when I came back to India about seven years ago to base myself here again, I decided that now it's time to dub 'Sandokan' into Hindi because it has been dubbed into many languages... be it Spanish, Dutch, French, and east European languages including Bulgarian," the 69-year-old said.

He felt that "this is something that needs to be done because I want the new generation here to see what made me a star in Europe".