Dilip Kumar Biography: From his real name to love affairs, Know the story of the legend, 'The First Khan of Bollywood'

Bollywood veteran actor Mohammed Yusuf Khan famously known by his stage name Dilip Kumar passed away on July 7, 2021. From being an exceptional actor, he was also a film producer and philanthropist and known for his valuable contribution to Hindi Cinema. While he was famous with the name of Dilip Kumar, he was also called the “The First Khan” of the industry and made his special place in the industry with his distant form of method acting. Let us tell you that Dilip Kumar has the record of winning the most number of Filmfare awards and he was also one of the first recipients of the award. 

Dilip Kumar Biography

While Dilip Kumar left the world ending an Era, his legacy has been etched in the Hindi Cinema forever. 

Dilip Kumar Birth and Family

Born on December 11, 1922, Dilip Kumar’s real name is Mohammad Yusuf Khan. He was one of the 12 children of Ayesha Begum and Lala Ghulam Sarwar Khan and took birth in their home in Qissa Khawani Bazaar area of Peshawar, British India (Now in Pakistan). His father Lala Ghulam Sarwar Khan was a fruit merchant and landlord and owned many orchards in Peshawar city and Deolali near Nashik. 

Raj Kapoor’s Childhood friend

Dilip Kumar aka Mohammad Yusuf Khan did her schooling at Barnes School, Deolali, Nashik. He was brought up in the same neighbourhood as Raj Kapoor and had a mixed religious surrounding. Late Veteran actor Raj Kapoor was his childhood friend and his colleague in Bollywood. 

Dilip Kumar struggling phase

In his teens, Dilip left his father’s house in Pune Maharashtra after some arguments and joined a canteen to earn daily bread and butter. He got helped by a Parsi café-owner and an elderly Anglo-Indian couple as they introduced him to a canteen contractor. Dilip Kumar with his knowledge, skillset and good command of English, landed his first job and even set up his own sandwich stall at the army club. After the termination of the contract, he headed to Mumbai (Bombay) taking an amount of Rs 5000 which he saved during his jobs. 

Dilip Kumar in his early career in Film Industry 

In early 1943, Dilip Kumar met  Dr. Masani at Churchgate Station and asked him for his help as he wanted to earn and help his father financially. Dr. Masani called him to accompany him to the  Bombay Talkies, in Malad. There he was introduced to the owner of Bombay Talkies, actress Devika Rani who hired him for work with a salary of Rs. 1250 per month. 

Later Dilip also met actor Ashok Kumar at Bombay Talkies who helped him and even got influenced by his acting style. Kumar asked Dilip to keep his acting style natural. During the same phase, Dilip also met producer Sashadhar Mukherjee.

Both Kumar and Mukherjee became close acquaintances of Dilip and helped him with the story-writing and scripting department because of his proficiency in the Urdu language. 

Dilip Kumar Debut Film

In 1944, seeing his acting skills, Devika Rani cast him as a lead role in the film Jwar Bhata and also asked him to change his name to ‘Dilip Kumar’. With the film, ‘Jwar Bhata Dilip Kumar debuted in Bollywood. 

In his exceptional career of 5 decades, Dilip Kumar worked in more than 65 films and raised his fame from the film including Mugleazam, Devdas, Naya Daur, Ram Aur Shyam and others. While he was famous for his extraordinary method of acting, he did versatile roles from being romantic to dramatic, his magic swooned everyone. 

Examples of his different shade in roles are- 

• Romantic role in  Andaz (1949)

• Swashbuckling role in Aan (1952)

• Social dramatic in Daag (1952)

• Romantic/dramatic in Devdas (1955)

• Comical character in Azaad (1955)

• Epic historical character in Mughal-e-Azam (1960)

• Dacoit character in crime drama Gunga Jamuna (1961)

• And the tickling comedy and double role in Ram Aur Shyam (1967)

Dilip Kumar Filmography