8 things you don’t know about late Indian actor, Dilip Kumar

With a heavy heart, the Bollywood industry announced the death of one of their legend, Dilip Kumar who died of breathlessness on Wednesday.

The veritable legend was admitted to the hospital on 30 June after he complained of breathlessness. He had been frequently ill for months.

However, Kumar is survived by his wife, Saira Banu, a Bollywood actress herself. The couple has no children.

Here are discuss 8 things you probably don’t know about late Indian legend, Dilip Kumar.

1.    The actor was born Mohammad Yusuf Khan on December 11, 1922, in Peshawar city, now in Pakistan. His father was a fruit merchant who took his family to India’s entertainment capital in the 1930s.

2.  Dilip Kumar, who made his debut in 1944 with Jwar Bhata, was paid  ₹ 1250 per month as his remuneration. Kumar’s screen name was suggested by Devika Rani, who cast him in his first movie, Jwar Bhata (Sea Tide), in 1944. In a special broadcast of BBC Indian Service during his visit to London in April 1953, Dilip Kumar spoke about his stage name and how he used to sell vegetables before getting into Bollywood.

3.  ‘Jwar Bhata’ was his first movie. He got the film on the recommendation of iconic star Ashok Kumar, who was his mentor in his initial days as an actor.

4. Dilip Kumar refused to work with Saira Banu because ‘she was too young to be my leading lady. As fate would have it, he ended up marrying her in 1966 at the age of 44. Saira Banu was just 22 then.

5. In 1980, he married a Hyderabadi girl Asma. But the marriage didn’t last long. Speaking about this in his autobiography, The Substance, and the Shadow, Dilip Kumar mentioned how it was a grave mistake on his part – something he would like to forget about.

6. Dilip Kumar has been a Member of Parliament.

7. During his superstardom days, the actor’s signing amount ranged from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 11 lakh.

8. Contrary to his onscreen image, Dilip Kumar was a fun-loving man in real life and has been known to make people laugh for hours. 10. The veteran actor had even learned how to play the ‘sitaar’ for a song sequence in the movie K