Weekend

Today, on this weekend blog, I am writing about one of the greatest actor, who has graced the Indian silver screen and his name is Yusuf Khan and he is popularly known by his screen name DILIP KUMAR.

The critics say , if you consider all the great actors of Indian silver screen from  Bollywood and other regional cinemas then he will be first among equals. He has been inspiration to most of the Bollywood stars/actors starting from Rajendra Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Shah Rukh Khan and many more. Few years back Shah Rukh Khan made a statement that whenever he is under fix to perform any complex scene, then in that case he will relate the said scene to some scene from Dilip Kumar’s film and perform in similar fashion. Such has been his influence on the Bollywood.

He was born in Peshawar (now in Pakistan) on Dec 12, 1922. When he was in teen his family shifted to Poona.

He had fascination for the films, and in 1942 some how he landed in Bombay Talkies, where the owner of studio seeing his looks, hired him on a princely salary of Rs 1250 per month. He was launched by Bombay Talkies in 1944 in a leading role in a film called Jwar Bhata, which did not perform very well at box office. After few more unsuccessful films, he arrived with bang in 1947 in a super hit film Jugnu where he co starred with Noor Jahan. His other hit movies of 40s were Shaheed, Mela, and Andaz, In Andaz he shared the honours with Raj Kapoor & Nargis.

In the 50s, he went on playing leading roles in several box office hits such as Jogan (1950), Babul (1950)Hulchul(1951), Deedar (1951),Aan(1952) Daag (1953), Shikast (1953) Amar (1954), Uran Khatola (1955) Azaad (1955), Insaaniyat (1955) Dev Das (1956), Naya Daur(1957), Madhumati (1958) and Paigham (1959) All these films were very successful and he established himself as actor par excellence and as most of his roles were serious ones, he was labelled as Tragedy King. This started affecting his personal life also and he had to to take the help of Psychiatrist, who advised him to act in some roles which are light and comical in nature, and thus he took the films like Azaad, Naya Daur, the roles in these films involved certain amount of comedy also. In the 50s he became the first actor , who charged Rs One Lakh for a film.

In the 60s, his golden spell continued and he acted in films like Mughal e Azam (1960), Kohinoor (1960), Ganga Jamuna (1961), Leader (1964), Dil Diya Dard Liya (1965), Ram Aur Shyam (1967), Aadmi (1968) and Sanghursh (1968). During this decade he became very choosey about his roles and restricted himself from signing more films.

In the 70s age started catching up with him, that’s why he could not play young hero’s role , and his films released during this decade had a mixed response on the box office. Films like Gopi (1970) Daastan (1972), Sagina (1974) and Bairaag (1976) did mixed business.

It has been said that Hrishikesh Mukherjee wanted to make Anand with Raj Kapoor (Anand) and Dilip  Kumar (Bhaskar Banerjee), but in the end he made the film with Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan. Just imagine if this film was made with Raj Kapoor & Dilip Kumar then Bollywood may or may not have heard of man called Amitabh Bachchan, because with this was the role with which Amitabh crossed the threshold of Bollywood.

After Bairaag Dilip Kumar took a 5 year hiatus from acting and came back with Kranti in a powerful character role. His movies Vidhata and Shakti, where he had powerful role established himself once again as great actor in the roles which were not of conventional hero. During this phase in 80s he also acted in Mashal, Duniya,  Karma and Dharmadhikari,  In the 90s his most popular movie was Saudagar (1991) co starring Raaj Kumar. After that one producer announced a movie named Kalinga, to be directed by Dilip Kumar. The shooting was started but film was never completed , and Dilip Kumar had a pivotal role in movie also. In 1999 his last film Quila was released.

In 2000s his two movies Mughal e Azam and Naya Daur were re released in colour version, and both the movies did good business. During his career spanning 6 decades he acted only in 66 films, which shows his involvement and dedication to films in which he was acting. Today’s actor Aamir Khan is following in his footstep about being choosey in doing only few films.

He has won 8 Filmfare awards for Best Actor, the films were Daag (1953), Azaad (1955), Devdas (1956), Naya Daur (1957), Kohinoor (1960), Leader (1964), Ram Aur Shaym (1967) and Shakti (1962). Once it was a record, now Shah Rukh Khan share this record with him.

In the 50s he had a affair with Madhubala and wanted to marry her, but her father was opposed to this. Her father stopped her from acting in Naya Daur because the film was to be shot mostly in locations(outdoors) and hero was Dilip Kumar. The producer took Madubala to court, and while giving his testimony in the court favouring producer, he proclaimed his love for Madubala in court.  In 1966 , he married actress Saira Banu, who was at that time half his age. They are still together. Being  Muslim he married 2^nd time in 1981, but the marriage ended in 1983. It has been said that as Saira Banu was unable to conceive and give birth to his child, that’s why he took 2^nd wife. But it was his destiny, that to not have any children.

Presently he is almost 96 years of age, and news is that he is bed ridden and not in position to recognise people, his wife Saira is taking care of him.

The Govt of India honoured him with:

• 2015 – India’s second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, for his contributions toward Indian Cinema
• 2000-2006 – Elected to Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Indian  Parliament.
• 1994 -Dadasaheb Phalke Award
• 1991 – India’s third highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan, for his contributions towards Indian Cinema

1979-1982 – Appointed as the Sheriff of Bombay by the Governor of Maharashtra, India.

1998 – The Govt of Pakistan honoured him with its highest civilian honour, the Nishan e Imtiaz.

His performance in the title role of Devdas (1955) is considered as one of the ten best performances ever on the silver screen globally.

In the end, he is a LEGEND of Indian Cinema.

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