Dilip Kumar: The undisputed 'Tragedy King'

With the passing away of veteran actor Dilip Kumar, a void emerges in India's film industry. The iconic actor leaves behind a legacy of more than just his films.

Dilip Kumar, the undisputed 'Tragedy King' of the silver screen, was loved and cherished by fans, actors and critics alike. With his looks, acting, dialogue-delivery – he was not only idolised in India, but across the world where people watch Indian films, especially in Pakistan.

The legendary actor passed away in Mumbai on Wednesday. He was 98. He is survived by his actor-wife Saira Banu.

Be it Devdas, Madhumati, Mughal-e-Azam, Kranti or Shakti, Kumar left audiences spellbound.

While Bollywood stars Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan describe him as one of the “greatest actors ever”, legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray has described him as “the ultimate method actor”. He is a recipient of the coveted Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan awards and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, he was also a former Rajya Sabha member.

Born Mohammed Yusuf Khan on Dec. 11, 1922, in Peshawar, to a Pashtun family, which traded in fruits, the family later relocated to Mumbai. He was fluent in several languages including Urdu, Hindi, Hindko, Punjabi, Marathi, English, Bengali, Gujarati, Pashto, Persian and the Awadhi and Bhojpuri.

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Around 1940, Dilip Kumar left home for Pune where he started his career as a canteen owner and a dry fruit supplier. In 1943, actress Devika Rani, and her husband Himanshu Rai, who owned Bombay Talkies, spotted Kumar in Pune's Aundh military canteens and cast him as the lead in their film Jwar Bhata (1944), which marked Dilip Kumar's entry into the Bollywood film industry.

Hindi author Bhagwati Charan Varma gave him the screen name Dilip Kumar.

He went on to appear in many hit films including Mela (1948), Andaz (1949), Deedar (1951), Devdas (1955), Yahudi (1958) and Madhumati (1958). These films established his screen image as the "Tragedy King".

The trio of Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor, and Dilip Kumar were the biggest stars of the time. He got Filmfare awards for best actor for Daag in 1953 and consecutively for Azad (1955), Devdas (1956), Naya Daur (1957) etc.

His other successful films during the time were Mughal- e- Azam (1960), Madhumati, Ganga Jamuna (1961). which marked one of the best performances in his career, and Ram aur Shyam (1967).

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In between, his continuous tragic roles gave a high-handedness to his characters that he consciously tried to break free from and began to accept more light-hearted films in which also he excelled.

His versatility was shown through roles in films like Ganga Jamuna and the comedy Ram Aur Shyam, two of the best performances in his career.

In 1960, he portrayed Prince Salim in the historical film Mughal-e-Azam, which was one of the highest-grossing films in Hindi film history. In 1961, he produced and starred in Ganga Jamuna in which he and his brother Nasir Khan played the title roles. It was the only film he produced.

In 1981, he returned with the multi-starrer Kranti which was the biggest hit of the year. He went on to play character roles in hit films including Shakti (1982), Vidhaata (1982), Mashaal (1984) and Karma (1986). In 1991, he starred alongside veteran actor Raaj Kumar in Saudagar which remained his last successful film.

Dilip Kumar married actress and beauty queen Saira Banu in the year 1966 when she was 22.

In a career spanning over five decades, this veteran actor found a place in the world of Hindi films that few could vie for with his fine performances though he always stressed that his first love was never cinema but football.