Yusuf Khan (Hindi: यूसुफ खान) (born 11 December 1922), popularly known

as Dilip Kumar (Hindi: िदलीप कुमार) Dilip Kumar is considered to be the greatest
actor of Indian cinema and he also was a former Member of Parliament. He lives
in Pali Hillin the Mumbai suburb of Bandra.

Starting his career in 1944, Kumar has starred in commercially successful films
of the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1980s.His performances have been regarded as
the epitome of emoting in Indian Cinema. He was the first actor to receive
a Filmfare Best Actor Award and holds the record for most number of Filmfare
Awards won for that category. He starred in a wide variety of roles such as the
romantic Andaz(1949), the swashbuckling Aan (1952), the
dramatic Devdas (1955), the comicalAzaad (1955), the historical
romance Mughal E Azam (1960) and the social Ganga Jamuna (1961). In the
1970s roles dried up for Kumar and he left film in 1976 for a five-year break. In
1981 he returned with a character role in the blockbuster filmKranti and
continued his career playing central character roles in hits such
asShakti (1982), Karma (1986) and Saudagar (1991) his last film was Qila in
1998.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Early life
• 2 Career
• 3 Public life
• 4 Personal life
• 5 Brotherhood
• 6 Awards
• 7 Filmography
• 8 Incomplete / un-released films
• 9 References

• 10 External links

[edit]Early life
Dilip Kumar was born Muhammad Yusuf Khan at Mohallah Khudadad, on the
back of Qissa Khwani Bazaar in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa formerly North
West Frontier Province, British India (part of Pakistan since 1947). He was born
to a Hindko-speaking family of Afghan origin with twelve children. His father, Lala
Ghulam Sarwar, was a fruit merchant who owned large orchards in Peshawar
and Deolali inMaharashtra near Nashik. The family relocated to Mumbai in the
1930s and in the early 1940s Yusuf Khan moved to Pune and started a canteen
business and supplying dried fruits.

In 1943, actress Devika Rani, who was also the wife of the founder of
the Bombay Talkies film studio, Himanshu Rai, helped Khan's entry into
the Bollywood film industry. Noted Hindi Author Bhagwati Charan Varma gave
him the screen name Dilip Kumar and gave him the leading role in his film Jwar
Bhata (1944). Devika and her husband Svetoslav Roerich spotted the young and
smart-looking Khan in one of Pune's Aundh military canteens.

[edit]Career

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.
In 1949, he co-starred with Raj Kapoorin the romantic melodrama Andaz, which
made him a star and in 1955 he co-starred with Dev Anand in Insaniyat.
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 such as Deedar (1951), Amar (1954), Devdas (1955)
and Madhumati (1958), which earned him the title of "tragedy king".

He also played lighthearted roles such as

a swashbuckling peasant in Aan (1952) and a comic role in Azaad (1955). In
1960 he starred in thehistorical film Mughal-e-Azam which as of 2008 was the
second highest grossing film in Hindi film history[1]. He played the role of
the Mughalcrown-prince Salim-later becomes Jehangir in history-not in the movie
Mughal-e-Azam, the son of Akbar.

In 1961 he produced and starred in the hit Ganga Jamuna in which he and his
real-life brother Nasir Khan played the title roles. Despite the film's success he
did not produce any films after this. In 1962 British director David Lean offered
him the role of Sherif Ali in his 1962 blockbuster, Lawrence of Arabia, but Kumar
declined the part. The role eventually went to Omar Sharif, the Egyptian actor.
After a brief period of box office flops in the mid 1960s, he played a dual
role of twins separated at birth in the film Ram Aur Shyam (1967) which was one
of the biggest box office hits of the year. The success of Ram Aur
Shyam spawned a number of remakes and imitators.

In the 1970s Kumar acted in fewer films as newer actors such

as Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan had begun to take the
spotlight. The 1976 film Bairaag in which he played triple roles flopped badly, so
he took a five year break from acting.

He made a comeback in 1981 with the multi-starrer Kranti, the biggest hit of the
year. He went onto play character roles as an elderly family patriarch or a police
officer in a string of box office hits including Shakti (1982) (in which he starred
alongside the reigning superstar of the time Amitabh
Bachchan), Vidhaata (1982), Mashaal (1984) and Karma (1986). In his last major
film, Saudagar (1991), he appeared alongside another legendary actor Raaj
Kumar, three decades after they last appeared together in Paigham (1959). In
1993 he won the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 1996 he was attached to make his directorial debut with a film

titled Kalinga but the film was shelved. In 1998 he made his last film appearance
in the box office flop Qila. His classic film Mughal-E-Azam was fully colorized in
2004 and re-released, doing well at the box office. Another of his classic
films, Naya Daur, was colorized and released in August 2007.

He remains one of the last surviving actors from the golden era of Bollywood in
the 1940s and 1950s along with Pran and Dev Anand.

[edit]Public life
Kumar has been active in efforts to bring the people of India and Pakistan closer
together. He has been a member of the upper house ofParliament since 2000
and is known for his extensive charity work.

He was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1994. In 1998 he was awarded
the Nishan-e-Pakistan, the highest civilian award conferred by the government
of Pakistan. He is the second Indian to receive the award; the first was former
Indian prime minister Morarji Desai. At the time of the Kargil War, Shiv
Sena chief Bal Thackeray demanded Kumar return his Nishan-e-Pakistan,
arguing that "He must return Nishan-e-Imtiaz following that country's blatant
aggression on Indian soil."[2]. Kumar refused, saying:

"This award was given to me for the humane activities to which I have dedicated
myself. I have worked for the poor, I have worked for many years to bridge the
cultural and communal gaps between India and Pakistan. Politics and religion
have created these boundaries. I have striven to bring the two people together in
whatever way I could. Tell me, what does any of this have to do with the Kargil
conflict?"[3]

[edit]Personal life
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.

[edit]Brotherhood

Kumar's younger brother Nasir Khan was also an actor and appeared opposite
him in Ganga Jamuna (1961) and Bairaag (1976). His career was not as
successful. Nasir Khan's wife was 1950s actress Begum Para who made a
comeback to films after 50 years in the film Saawariyain 2007. Nasir's son Ayub
Khan, who is nephew of Dilip Kumar is also an actor and works in films and
Television serials.
The actress Madhubala worked with Kumar in Tarana in 1951, and they formed a
close friendship. They were rumoured to be romantically connected,[4][5] and she
accompanied Kumar to the premiere of his film Insaniyat.[6] Their friendship
ended acrimoniously when director B.R. Chopra wanted 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.[7][8][9]

[edit]Awards

Kumar has received many awards throughout his career, including 8 Filmfare
Award for Best Actor awards and 19 nominations. He was honoured with
the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. The Government of
India honoured him with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1994 - the highest
award for cinematic excellence in India. In 1980, he was appointed Sheriff of
Mumbai, an honorary position. In 1991, he was awarded Padma Bhushan from
the Government of India. In 1997, Kumar was awarded, Nishan-e-
Pakistan, Pakistan's highest civilian award.

He received in 1997 the NTR National Award. He was also awarded CNN-IBN
Indian of the Year - Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009