In the long journey of Bollywood, the industry has seen arrivals and departure of plethora of strugglers who wanted to establish themselves as an actor but very few of them managed to leave an indelible mark on the cinematic industry and legendary Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar is one of that group of succesful artists. With phenomenal on-screen performances, the veteran actor has successfully managed to engrave his name into the Hall of fame list. The actor is often referred to as the “First Khan” and is credited for bringing the technique of method acting into Indian Cinema. The 98-year-old legend has appeared in 60 movies and is considered as one of the last surviving great actors from the “golden age of Hindi Cinema”. Here we take a look at some of the lesser-known facts related to the life and journey of Dilip Kumar, the Bollywood legend:
1. The acting legend who ruled the Bollywood industry for more than 5 decades was born Yusuf Khan but later changed his name to Dilip Kumar. This is the reason he is one of the first khans of the industry. The story behind this is that when he was working in Bombay Talkies, he met Devika Rani and she requested him to change his name from Yousuf to Dilip Kumar and later cast him in a lead role in the film 'Jwar Bhata' in the year 1944.
2. Many says that we can see a little bit of Raj Kapoor’ style in Dilip Kumar’s acting and the reason behind that is he did his schooling at Barnes School in Deolali, Nashik where Raj Kapoor was his childhood friend and the two grew up together in the same religiously mixed neighborhood.
3. During 1940, when Dilip Kumar was in their teenage period, he ran away from his house after having a heated argument with his father. He went to Pune where he set up a sandwich stall with the help of a Parsi café owner and saved over Rs 5000 which was a huge amount at the time.
4. After running that stall for two years, the legend got his first job at Bombay Talkies where he worked as a script-writer at a salary of Rs 1250 per month. There he met actor Ashok Kumar, who played a significant role in influencing his acting style and introducing him to method acting.
5. Bombay Talkies has played an important in Dilip Kumar’s career. Because Bombay Talkies was the place where He met Devika Rani who requested him to change his name from Yousuf to Dilip Kumar and later cast him in a lead role in his debut film 'Jwar Bhata' in the year 1944.
6. Dilip Kumar was famous for his flawless acting performances on screen. Reportedly he suffered from depression because of the intense characters he was playing in movies in the 1950s due to which he was also labeled as the “tragedy king”.
7. Dilip Kumar was such a legendary actor that he was approached by the British director, David Lean in 1962, to play the character of Sherif Ali in his movie Lawrence of Arabia, but he turned down the offer.
8. Reportedly the actor fell in love with married actress Kamini Kaushal. But later found the love of his life in Saira Bano. In 1966, he married actress Saira Banu, who was 22 years his junior. Since then, she has always been by Dilip Kumar's side.
9. It is said the acting legend has so many awards that if he sells them, he will become millionaire just by selling them. Not just national but the actor has also garnered some international awards too.
10. Dilip Kumar was one of the finest actors of his time. And it seems like he was very choosy about his onscreen appearances. According to some media reports, Dilip Kumar had refused to work with Nargis in Mother India.
