BY S VENKAT NARAYAN
Veteran Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar, aged 93, has been admitted to Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai.
“Dilip Kumarji was admitted to Lilavati hospital at 2am on Saturday with respiratory problems. He’s not in ICU (Intensive Care Unit),” Dr Jalil Parkar of Lilavati hospital told ANI news agency.
“Doctors are keeping a close watch on Dilip Kumar,” he added. The actor’s family said there is no cause for alarm.
The legendary actor was born in Peshawar (now in Pakistan) in pre-partition India as Mohammad Yusuf Khan but adopted the screen name of Dilip Kumar. Critics have acclaimed him as one of the greatest actors in the century-old history of the Hindi cinema.
He was described as “the ultimate method actor” by Satyajit Ray. He debuted as an actor in the film Jwar Bhata in 1944 produced by Bombay Talkies. His acted in over 60 films in a career that spanned as many years. He starred in films of a variety of genres such as the romantic Andaz (1949), the swashbuckling Aan (1952), the dramatic Devdas (1955), the comical Azaad (1955), the historical Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and the social Ganga Jamuna (1961).
His hits include Madhumati, Devdas, Mughal-e-Azam, Ganga Jamuna, Ram Aur Shyam, Karma and others.
He was crowned as the ‘Tragedy King’ of Hindi cinema for playing a doomed lover in films like Andaz, Baabul, Mela, Deedar, Jogan and others. He was last seen in the film Qila in 1998.
Kumar was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 2015. Earlier, he was honoured with Padma Bhushan in 1991 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1994 for his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema.
In 1976, Dilip Kumar took a five-year break from film performances and returned with a character role in the film Kranti (1981) and continued his career playing leading roles in films such as Shakti (1982), Karma (1986) and Saudagar (1991). His last film was Qila (1998).
He is the winner of nine Filmfare Awards, an Indian version of the Oscars in Hollywood, and is the first recipient of Filmfare Best Actor Award (1954). He still holds the record for the most number of Filmfare awards won for that category with eight wins.
He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Indian Parliament, for a term. The Government of Pakistan honoured him with its highest civilian honour Nishan-e-Imtiaz in 1997.
Courtesy:The Island