Dilip Kumar
Indian actor and film producer
Died when: 98 years 208 days (1182 months)Star Sign: Sagittarius
Mohammed Yusuf Khan (Urdu pronunciation: [mo??m??d? ju?s?f x??n]; 11 December 1922 – 7 July 2021), better known by his stage name Dilip Kumar, was an Indian actor who worked in Hindi cinema.
Credited with pioneering method acting in cinema, he dominated the Indian movie scene from late 1940s throughout 1960s, being referred to as "Abhinay Samrat" (Hindi for "Emperor of Acting") by the audience.
Kumar holds the record for most wins for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor (eight, which was later equalled by Shah Rukh Khan) and was also the inaugural recipient of the award.
He holds the best box-office record for a star (male or female) in Hindi cinema with over eighty-percent box-office successes.
In a career spanning over five decades, Kumar worked in around 60 films in a variety of roles.He debuted as an actor in the film Jwar Bhata (1944), produced by Bombay Talkies.
Following a series of unsuccessful ventures, he had his first box office hit in Jugnu (1947).Kumar found further success with the romantic Andaz (1949), the swashbuckling Aan (1952), the social drama Daag (1952), the dramatic Devdas (1955), the comical Azaad (1955), the romantic social Naya Daur (1957), the noir mystery Madhumati (1958), the comedy-drama Paigham (1959) the epic historical Mughal-E-Azam (1960), the social dacoit crime drama Gunga Jumna (1961), and the comedy drama Ram Aur Shyam (1967).
All three Andaz, Aan and Naya Daur briefly became the highest-grossing Indian film up to that point, a feat later achieved by Mughal-e-Azam, which sustained the record for 15 years.
As of 2021, the latter remains the highest-grossing Indian film when adjusted for inflation.The 1970s saw Kumar's career take a downturn, marked by three consecutive commercial underperformers, namely Dastaan (1972), Sagina (1974) and Bairaag (1976).
In 1976, he went on a five-year hiatus from film performances and returned with the revolutionary drama Kranti, which was the highest-grossing Indian film of the year.
He continued to play leading roles in films such as Shakti (1982), Karma (1986), and Saudagar (1991).His last on-screen appearance was in the commercially unsuccessful Qila (1998), which saw him in a dual role.
Kumar later served as a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's parliament, from 2000 to 2006.Kumar's personal life was the subject of much media attention, however, he himself had largely avoided media limelight and endorsements.
He was in a long-term relationship with actress and frequent co-star Madhubala that ended after the Naya Daur court case in 1957.
He married actress Saira Banu in 1966 and resided in Bandra, a suburb of Mumbai, until his death in 2021.For his contributions to film, the Government of India awarded him with the Padma Bhushan in 1991 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2015, the country's third and second-highest civilian awards respectively.
He was also awarded India's highest accolade in the field of cinema, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1994.In 1998, the Government of Pakistan conferred Kumar with Nishan-e-Imtiaz, their highest civilian decoration, making him the only Indian to have received the honour.
The house that Kumar grew up in, located in Peshawar, was declared a national heritage monument in 2014 by the Pakistani government.
