DILIP KUMAR-THE TRAGEDY KING

DILIP KUMAR-THE VETERAN INDIAN BOLLYWOOD ACTOR

DILIP KUMAR

EARLY LIFE:

Dilip Kumar, the original name Muhammad Yusuf Khan, was born December 11, 1922, in Peshawar, British India, now in Pakistan. He was one of the twelve children of  Lala Ghulam Sarvar Khan and his wife Ayesha Begum. His father was a fruit merchant. Khan was schooled at Barnes School, Deolali. 

In 1940 he moved to Pune and set up a dry fruit shop and a canteen. Khan never acted under his birth name. In an interview in 1970, he said that he adopted this name out of fear of his father, who never approved of his acting career. He began working in a British army canteen, where he was noticed by Devika Rani, a leading actress of the time, and her husband, Himanshu Rai, who hired him to act for the Bombay Talkies, a film company they owned. 

CAREER:

Kumar made his acting debut with the film Jwar Bhatta (1944), but it was not until a few years later that he had a box-office hit, with the film Jugnu (1947). In 1949 he co-starred with Raj Kapoor in Mehboob Khan’s film Andaz, which catapulted him to stardom. Kumar went on to have success in the 1950s playing leading roles in several box office hits such as Jogan (1950), Babul (1950), Hulchul (1951), Deedar(1951), Tarana(1951), Daag (1952), Sangdil(1952), Shikasht(1953), Amar(1954), Urankhatola(1955), 

Insaniyat(1955), Devdas(1955), NayaDaur(1957), Yahudi(1958), Madhumati (1958) and Paigham(1959), the epic historical Mughal-e-Azam(1960), the social crime drama Gunga Jamuna(1961), and the comedy Ram Aur Shyam (1967). Some of these films established his screen image as the "Tragedy King". Both Andaz and Aan briefly became the highest-grossing Indian film up to that point, a feat later achieved by Mughal-e-Azam, which sustained the record for 11 years.

After an extended hiatus, Kumar made a comeback with Manoj Kumar’s film Kranti 1981. Thereafter he played key roles in Subhash Ghai’s Vidhaata (1982), Karma (1986), and Saudagar 1991. He was also noted for his performance in Ramesh Sippy’s Shakti 1982. Kumar’s last film was the family drama Qila 1998. Kumar later served as a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's parliament, from 2000 to 2006. Dilip Kumar was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1991 for his outstanding contribution to Indian Cinema. He was also awarded Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1994 and Padma Vibhushan in 2015.  In 1998, the Government of Pakistan conferred Kumar with Nishan-e-Imtiyaz, the highest civilian decoration, making him the only Indian to have received the honour. The house that Kumar grew up in, located in Peshawar, Pakistan, was declared a Pakistani national heritage monument in 2014.

PERSONAL LIFE:

DILIP KUMAR AND SAIRA BANO

Kumar had fallen in love with Madhubala during the shooting of Tarana. They remained in a relationship for seven years. In the late 1950s, Vyajayanthimala was linked by gossip magazines to Kumar, who has acted with her the most compared to any other actress, which resulted in great on-screen chemistry between them. In 1966, Kumar married actress Saira Bano, who was 22 years younger than him. He later married Hyderabad socialite Asma Sahiba, taking her as a second wife in 1981.  That marriage ended in January 1983. Banu and he lived in Bandra. They did not have any children. In his autobiography, Dilip Kumar: The Substance and the Shadow, he revealed that Banu had conceived in 1972, but developed complications in the pregnancy, leading to the child's death. Following this, they did not try to have children again, believing it to be God's will. 

DEATH:

Kumar died at Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai, on 7 July 2021 at 7:30 am, aged 98. He had been suffering from prostate cancer. The Government of Maharashtra approved his burial with state honours at Juhu Muslim Cemetery that same day.

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES