The death of legendary Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar does not leave a vacuum in the Indian film industry considering he had not acted in a movie for nearly three decades, nor starred in one for much longer. At the age of 98, the days of his prime had been long past him, with a new crop of heroes like Amitabh Bachchan and Jeetendra politely but firmly edging Kumar out by the beginning of the 1970s.
But during his day, Dilip Kumar was the top pick of Bollywood and as recognisable a Bollywood name as any to this day. Born Muhammad Yusuf Khan to a trading family in Peshawar’s Qissa Khwani Bazaar, Kumar moved with his family in his adolescence to Mumbai where his father had business. Here, he would be introduced to the world of show-business, where he would first change his name to Dilip Kumar to hide his newfound trade from his family.
Mr Kumar belonged to a crop of actors that would come to shape Indian cinema after Partition. After 1947, with the film industry mostly based in Mumbai, Mr Kumar decided to stay in India and permanently hitch his wagon to Bollywood. Here, throughout the 1950s and the 1960s, he was not only every director’s first choice for leading man, but took on what would become some of the most iconic roles in the history of Indian cinema. He played Prince Saleem in the 1960 classic Mughal-e-Azam, which is often considered to have the same stature in Indian cinema as Casablanca in Hollywood. However, it was his titular role in the 1955 film Devdas that truly propelled him into not just stardom, but legendary status.
Acting in a small capacity up until the 1990s, in retirement Dilip Kumar enjoyed both the love and adoration of the Indian Subcontinent across borders, as well as a short lived political career as a Congress lawmaker in the Lok Sabha. During his time in politics, he was a strong voice for Indo-Pak peace, and his passing was personally mourned by Prime Minister Imran Khan, whom he helped in his quest to raise funds for the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust Hospital.
