Legendary Dilip Kumar is no more. He was 98. The quintessential tragedy king –doyen of Indian cinema, passed away on Wednesday morning in Mumbai, India’s commercial capital and home to Bollywood.
Kumar is survived by his wife, Saira Banu, a popular leading lady in Bollywood in the 1960s and 1970s.
According to the Hindustan Times, Kumar had been admitted to the intensive care unit on June 30 to “address medical issues” related to old age.
“He breathed his last at 7:30 AM IST in the presence of his wife Sairaji (Saira Bano) and Dr Nitin Gokhale”: Dr Jalil Parkar, Dilip Kumar’s doctor.
It’s the end of an era. Rest in peace Sir.
“An institution has gone…whenever the history of Indian Cinema will be written, it shall always be ‘before Dilip Kumar, and after Dilip Kumar’, tweeted Amitabh Bachchan, a Bollywood super star.
Born Yusuf Khan in Peshawar, then part of British-ruled India. he was a legend, thinker, philosopher, intellectual and a humanist.
DAWN reports “Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said that for his generation Kumar was the “greatest and most versatile actor”. “I can never forget his generosity in giving his time to help raise funds for Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust Hospital when the project was launched”.
Immortals never die. As Rabindranath Tagore wrote, “Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.”
Among his most remembered roles was in the lavish historical romance Mughal-e-Azam, based on the life of one of India’s great Mughal princes.
The movie, released in 1960, was eight years in the making and cost a mind-boggling 15 million rupees, but soon became one of Bollywood’s biggest-grossing films of all time.
