Dilip Kumar to turn 87

Veteran actor Dilip Kumar, who will turn 87 on December 11, is surely one of the greatest actors of the Hindi film world.

He was the first to receive the filmfare award for the best actor. He also won the filmfare lifetime achievement award in 1994.

The Govt of India honoured him with the Dad Saheb Phalke award, the highest award for cinematic excellence in India, in 1994.

He became the member of Rajya Sabha and went on to become the Sheriff of Mumbai.

Mohammed Yusef Khan was a Pashtun who took on the name Dilip Kumar as his screen name. He was born on 11th December 1922 in Peshawar which is now part of Pakistan, as the 12th child to his parents.

His father Ghulam Sarwar was a fruit merchant and owned large orchards in Peshawar and Devlali in Maharashtra near Mumbai. The family relocated to Mumbai in 1930s and in the early 1940s Yusuf Khan moved to Pune. He started off with a canteen business and as a supplier of dry fruits. He married the young and beautiful actress Sairabanu but had no children.

In 1947 he shot to prominence with the film Jugnu, his first major hit. In 1949, he co-starred with Raj Kapoor in the romantic melodrama Andaaz, which went on to become a huge success and eventually made him a star.

Throughout the 1950s he was one of the biggest stars of Bollywood along with Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand. He became known for playing tragic roles in popular films like Deedar Amar, Devdas and Madhumati. Bimal Roy, B R Chopra and Amia Chakravarthy, masters of Indian cinema gave him the title Tragedy King.

In many of the films like Deedar, Insiniyath, Shaheed, Yahudi, Aan, Ganga, Jamuna, Andhas and Devdas, he excelled as a disappointed lover. He also acted as comic hero in Ram Aur Shyam, leader and Kohinur. In 1962, British director David Lean offered him the role of Sherif Ali in his 1962 blockbuster Lawrence of Arabia but Dilip Kumar declined the part.

The role eventually went to Omar Sharif, the Egyptian actor. Towards the 1970s, he acted in fewer films as newer actors such as Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachhan had begun to take the spotlight. Many of Kumar’s films failed a the box office during this period and after the release of his 1976 film Bairaag in which he played a triple role, he took a five-yearbreak from acting. Dilip Kumar also entered film production thereafter. He retired from the film industry in 2002. Many have come to the scene after him, but the king of Hindi cinema will long remain Dilip Kumar.