Dino Martelli, previously known as Deepak Malhotra (born 1964), is a former Indian model and actor, who now runs an apparel company.
Early life
Deepak lived in Bangalore, where he studied in Christ University from 1982 to 1985.[1]
He was a member of Bangalore Club,[2] and was also a national-level gymnast.[3]
Career
Modelling
One of the earliest finds of Design and Print Group, Malhotra began his career modelling for a menswear line in Bangalore; and soon became one of the most sought after models during the late '80s and the early '90s.[4]
He was the face of Vimal, a major textile brand of Reliance Industries, for many years;[3][5] and reportedly had a contract of ₹1.5 Lakhs in 1987, which was unprecedented at that time.[6] He gained further popularity with his TV advertisement for Aramusk, a soap that was promoted as being for the "extravagantly male".[7]
Acting
After his success as a model, he started getting movie offers, and moved to Mumbai. In 1991, he made his film debut with Yash Chopra's Lamhe,[8] starring alongside Sridevi and Anil Kapoor.[9] He was first casted in Chamatkar (1992), but gave it up to act in Lamhe, and the role went to Shah Rukh Khan.[10] However, Lamhe didn't do very well, and his acting was panned.[11][12]
Yash Chopra was planning to make Darr (1993) with Deepak Malhotra and Raveena Tandon, with Saahil Chadha as the antagonist. But because of the performance of Lamhe, Chopra decided to cast more established actors; hence ultimately Sunny Deol and Shah Rukh Khan were casted in the roles Malhotra and Chadha were supposed to play, respectively.[13][14] Raveena also opted out of the project, and her role went to Juhi Chawla.[15]
Before Malhotra's first acting gig in Lamhe, Gautam Rajadhyaksha had suggested his name to Rahul Rawail for the lead role in Rawail's next movie.[16] Rawail made Bekhudi (1992) after that, but the role eventually went to another debutant Kamal Sadanah.
In 1992, Malhotra was signed by N. Chandra for Tejasvini (1994),[17] which was the Hindi remake of the Telugu film Karthavyam (1990), and had Vijayashanti reprising her role as the protagonist.[18] However, in 1993 before the movie was even released, Malhotra decided to quit acting and leave India and move to the United States where he had been offered modelling contracts.[19]
Entrepreneurship
Malhotra moved to New York City and changed his name to Dino Martelli.[20][21] There he studied industrial engineering and designing,[22] and started working in the field of apparels. He is currently the principal at NYC Made Apparel, which he co-founded in 2018.[1][23]
In 2003,[24] he opened Café Sesso in The Courtyard in Colaba, Mumbai with his friend and business partner Sabina Chopra,[22] co-founder of Yatra.com.[25] It shut down over a year later,[26] and they took up the management of the restaurant at Breach Candy's Moksh gym and leisure club, naming it Spring.[27]
Personal life
In 1998, Dino married model-turned-fashion choreographer Lubna Adam,[28][29] who had opened India's first fashion model training school Catwalk in Bombay in 1990.[30] They were in a relationship for 11 years before their marriage, and after getting married moved to New York where they lived in Upper West Side.[4]
They have two sons[31][32]– Kian Martelli, who was a decorated athlete in Riverhead High School,[33][34][35] and is a designated partner in Lubna Adams Luxury Lifestyle Llp[36]; and Kyle Martelli, salutatorian of Riverhead High's graduating Class of 2021,[37][38] who is currently a student at Boston University Questrom School of Business.[39] The Martelli brothers have also modelled for Manish Malhotra's fashion collection.[40]