As legendary Dilip Kumar (Yusuf Khan) turns 87 today, we take a look at his filmy journey so far.
His first film with Nisar Bhai and Hamed Bhai Jwar Bhata was released in 1944 and went unnoticed. In 1947 he shot to prominence working with the legendary singer and actress Noor Jahan, who agreed to act opposite him in the film Jugnu. Dilip Kumar married actress and beauty queen Saira Banu in 1966, when he was aged 44 and she was 22. At the time, gossip columnists predicted doom for the high-profile couple, but the union has been one of the longest lasting marriages in Bollywood.
Dilip Kumar who worked with Madhubala in many films including the famous Mughal-e-Azam, formed a close friendship. They were rumoured to be romantically linked and she accompanied Kumar to the premiere of his film Insaniyat. Their friendship ended acrimoniously when director B R Chopra wanted Dilip Kumar and Madhubala to travel to Bhopal for an extended period to shoot Naya Daur. Her father refused to allow her to go, so Chopra replaced her with Vyjayanthimala and the dispute ended up in court.
Dilip Kumar has starred in some of the most commercially successful films of the late 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1980sIn 1949, he co-starred with Raj Kapoor in the romantic melodrama Andaz, which made him a star. Throughout the 1950s he was one of the biggest stars of Bollywood along with Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand. Then came Jogan (1950) a romantic drama directed by Kedar Nath Sharma that also had Nargis. It featured the song, Ghungat ke pat khol sung by Geeta Dutt. A box-office success, the film became the fourth highest earning film of 1950, earning an approximate gross of Rs 1,12,00,000 and a nett gross of Rs 62,00,000. He worked in Daag (1952) produced and directed by Amiya Chakrabarty. The film saw him opposite NimmiDilip Kumar was seen romancing Nadiira in Aan. It was the debut of Nadira who replaced the original choice which was actress Nargis. It was the highest grosser of 1952 and was the first to gross over Rs 15 million. This record was beaten three years later by Shree 420 in 1955. Then came Bimal Roy’s classic Devdas (1955) which saw him opposite Vyjyanthimala. The film was based on the Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay novel, Devdas. In 2005, Indiatimes Movies ranked the movie amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films.
In fact Shah Rukh Khan who enacted the role of Devdas in 2002, had said his film was “a tribute to DilipDilip Kumar’s Azaad in 1955 was the top grossing Hindi film in the year of its release, and one of the biggest Hindi film hit in its decade. Dilip Kumar’s last film appearance was in a movie named Qila in 1998. Interestingly he had a double role in the film and also played a villainous character through one of them.
