Dilip Kumar, who was born a century ago on December 11, is the only actor whose name was altered for the film by a novelist rather than an industry person – B.C. Verma. It was also previously stated that Mohammed Yusuf Khan (his true name) would have liked the film names Jehangir or Vasudev for unclear reasons! Imagine the credits for his biggest blockbuster, Mughal-E-Azam, reading, ‘Starring Prithviraj Kapoor, Jehnagir or Vasudev and Madhubala!’
Dilip was distinct from his colleagues from the start. He maintained a remarkable exclusivity throughout, and although other top heroes had a very social life, he spent much of his time within the four walls of his home studying Stanislavsky’s method acting, classical and contemporary theatre, and comparative religious cultures.
The latter most likely assisted him in genuinely enacting a string of Hindu devotional numbers ranging from ‘Insaf ka mandir hai’ in Amar (1954) to ‘Sukh ke sab saathi’ in Gopi (1970) and ‘O Shankar mere’ in Bairaag (1976).
Dilip was awarded the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, Pakistan’s highest civilian honour, in 1998, making him the only Indian to have received it. In 2014, the Pakistan government designated his childhood home in Peshawar as a national cultural monument.
Dilip Kumar had three flops before his first blockbuster, Jugnu (1947), in the same year that Lata Mangeshkar made her Hindi debut, Jwar Bhata in 1944, Prabhat in 1945, and Milan in 1946. Dilip publicly stated his worries about Lata’s Urdu vocal talent, motivating her to enhance her Urdu diction. They had a special bond. She not only sung in his home production Gunga Jumna, but also in Dilip’s first song as a vocalist, ‘Laagi nahin chhoote Rama’ in Musafir (1957).
Salil Chowdhury wrote this song, and Dilip later returned to the studio for the chart-topping ‘Ae sanam tere liye’ from Karma (1986) under Laxmikant-Pyarelal. In this song, he narrated the lengthy opening and naughty section, while Mohammed Aziz sung the other sections alongside Kavita Krishnamurthi.
Dilip Kumar, unlike his contemporaries Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand, never formed a production banner. However, with the help of his brother Nasir Khan, he produced and created the story and script for Gunga Jumna in 1961, as well as ghost-directing a significant portion of it.
The smash blockbuster generated an entire film industry in the Bhojpuri idiom of Hindi, and it became a trendsetter, with Salim Khan admitting to drawing inspiration for several of his films from it. Kumar also won a Special Honour Diploma as an actor from the Czechoslovak Academy of Arts in Prague for his performance.
Dilip later created the script for Leader as well as the screenplay for his 1976 film Bairaag, in which he played three characters: a father, two sons, and himself. Mushir-Riaz, the makers of Bairaag, announced an ambitious picture starring Dilip alongside Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor. The Salim-Javed script was to be directed by Vijay Anand. The script never came to fruition!
In the 1990s, he unveiled a directorial (after supposedly ghost-directing many of his films! ), Kalinga, which was never completed. There has recently been talk about finishing the picture, including the allegedly incomplete music soundtrack by Kalyanji-Anandji. Raj Babbar and Shilpa Shirodkar also appeared in the film.
Dilip Kumar also appeared in two Bengali films: Paari (1966), a commercial success, and Sagina Mahato, which also had a Hindi adaptation (1974). It was officially produced by restaurateur J.K. Kapur, but it was rumoured to be ghost-produced by Dilip himself, and it is still the sole film in which Kishore Kumar gave playback for him. Anokha Milan, the Hindi version of Paari, was a flop.
In fact, Dilip had five recordings in 1948 after his debut smash, Jugnu! He had 18 more releases between 1959 and 1955, including Devdas (1955). However, following that film, a counsellor urged Dilip Kumar to avoid playing tragic characters, which he had perfected, because they were wearing him down, and he reverted to a run of light films. As a result, he had no release in 1956 and afterwards chose just one or two films per year till the end of his career.
His most recent film in a dual role was Qila (1998), his fourth following Madhumati, Ram Aur Shyam, and Dastaan. However, his 1995 film Aag Ka Darya remained mainly unreleased in India.
Manna Dey and Hemant Kumar had been the only two top singers who never sung for him. It was mostly the Rafi clones – Anwar, Shabbir Kumar, and Mohammed Aziz – among the younger singers. His most recent film, Qila, also featured Amit Kumar’s voice.
Mohammed Rafi was Dilip’s most frequent singer, Naushad was his most frequent composer, and Shakeel Badayuni was his lyricist. His most prominent female co-star was Vyjayanthimala, his most frequent male co-star was Anil Kapoor, and he worked with the most filmmakers, including Nitin Bose, S.U. Sunny, B.R. Chopra, and Subhash Ghai.
Dilip Kumar was supposed to co-star in Sunghursh alongside Sadhana, but it didn’t work out. Years later, when her husband R.K. Nayyar turned down a film deal, he famously said, “Why do you come in my way of immortality?”
And that remark exemplifies Dilip Kumar.