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Friday March 29, 2024

A few key facts about legendary actor

By Sabir Shah
July 08, 2021

LAHORE: Most charismatic Bollywood icon, Dilip Kumar, left for his heavenly abode Wednesday morning at a ripe old age of 98 years, six months and 26 days, which thus means that only Zohra Mumtaz Sehgal (1912-2014) outlived him among all actors and actresses across the border since the release of the first-ever Indian film “Raja Harishchandra” in 1913.

Zohra, who lived for 102 years, had acted in dozens of memorable movies like “Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham,” “Bend it like Beckham,” the captivating “Kal Ho Na Ho” and the mesmerizing “Veer Zaara.”

Suffering from prostate cancer and a breathing ailment, this tragedy kind of Indian cinema had perished at 7.30 am on July 7 at a Mumbai Hospital. His first film was “Jawar Bhatta” in 1944, and his last was “Qilla” in 1998.

Dilip Kumar acted for 64 long years, though he took a five-year break from film performances in 1976, and returned with a character role in the film “Kranti” in 1981.

His 1947 film “Jugnu” with Madam Noor Jahan became his first major hit at the box office as “Jawar Bhatta” had failed to make an impact. Dilip worked in around 65 films.

At least nine of his films in the 1950s were ranked in the Top 30 highest-grossing Indian films of the decade. This was an Indian record till Salman Khan broke it decades later by delivering 10 films with highest revenues.

In July 2019, “The Quint,” a notable Hindi and English news and opinion website, had written that Dilip’s 1960 blockbuster “Mughal-e-Azam” is the highest-grossing Indian film (equivalent to Indian Rs2000 crore in 2015) when adjusted for inflation. We all know “Mughal-e-Azam” is an epic historical drama film directed by K. Asif, produced by Shapoorji Pallonji and has stars like Dilip, Prithvi Rajkapoor and Madhubala.

The film was a milestone of its genre, earning praise from critics for its grandeur and attention to detail, helping Dilip fly to unbelievable heights of fame and touch more horizons.

The publication had stated: “The total earnings in today’s terms can be determined by dividing the film’s gross by average ticket price for the year that the film was released in so that we can get the estimated number of tickets the film managed to sell back then. And the adjusted figures can then be determined by multiplying the number of tickets sold with the average current ticket prices.”

According to another Indian media house “Mid-Day,” Dilip became the first actor in the 1950s, to charge Indian rupees One lakh (equivalent to Indian Rs85 lakh or $120,000 in 2019) per film.

“Shahzada Saleem” of “Mughal-e-Azam” had nourished a long relationship with one of the prettiest-ever Indian actresses Madhubala (Real name: Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi, 1933 – 1969), but never tied a knot with her. Instead, he had married a 22-year younger Saira Bano in 1966.

In fact, Saira was born in 1944, or the year Dilip had made his film debut.

Fluent in Urdu, English, Punjabi, Hindko and Pashto, he later married a Hyderabad socialite, Asma Rehman, in 1981, but the wedlock lasted only two years.

Dilip and Asma secretly got married at Bangalore, but local tabloids had soon splashed the pictures of the event to make the great actor land in an embarrassing position before Saira Bano, who was still reeling from an abortion.

Coming to Madhubala’s much-publicized affair with Dilip, it had met a tragic end. The affair, which started during the shooting of film “Tarana,” culminated after Dilip had testified against Madhubala and her father (who was against the romance) in the famous 1957 “Naya Daur Court Case.”

In this case, director BR Chopra had sued Madhubala for the cash advance she received from him for a film she now had no intention of completing.

According to “Mid-Day,” Madhubala obediently supported her father despite her commitment to Dilip Kumar. Kumar testified against Madhubala and Ataullah Khan in favour of BR Chopra in open court. The case was lost by Madhubala and her father amid much negative publicity. During the case, the film was released and declared a success. Chopra dropped the case and saved Madhubala from the humiliation of a possible prison sentence.”

Madhubala later married great singer Kishore Kumar, but fell victim to cancer at 36 only.

Dilip also had a romance with the Lahore-born Indian actress, Kamini Kaushal, in 1965.

Born in a Hindko-speaking family of Peshawar in December 1922, he holds the Guinness World Record for winning the maximum number of awards by an Indian actor.

Over his career, he received eight Filmfare Awards for Best Actor (with 19 total nominations) and a Filmfare Life-time Achievement Award in 1993. He was appointed Sheriff of Mumbai (an honorary position) for 1980.

The Indian government honoured him with prestigious “Padma Bhushan” Award in 1991, the “Dadasaheb Phalke” Award in 1994 and the “Padma Vibhushan” in 2015.

Pakistan had conferred Dilip Kumar with Nishan-e-Imtiaz, the highest civilian award of Pakistan, in 1998. The ruling political party of "Shiv Sena" in Maharashtra, led by Bal Thackeray, had objected to this award and questioned Dilip’s patriotism. However, upon interference from the-then Indian Premier Vajpayee, he managed to retain the Pakistani Award. He was also honoured with “CNN-IBN Lifetime Achievement Award” in 2009.

His younger brother Nasir Khan (1924–1974) was Pakistan’s first-ever film hero. Two of his other younger brothers died due to coronavirus last year.

While Aslam Khan died at the age of 88 in August 2020, Ehsan Khan succumbed to the deadly virus at 90 in September 2020.