One of Bollywood’s most accomplished and respected film stars Dilip Kumar, died on Wednesday aged 98, prompting tributes from across Indian and Pakistani cinema.
Kumar was born Mohammed Yusuf Khan on December 11, 1922, in Peshawar, Pakistan, then part of British-ruled India. His father was a fruit merchant who took his family to India’s entertainment capital in the 1930s.
Among his most remembered roles was the lavish historical romance “Mughal-e-Azam”, based on the life of a great Mughal prince. It became one of Bollywood’s biggest-grossing films of all time.
Kumar, who cited Hollywood greats Marlon Brando, Gary Cooper and Spencer Tracy as influences, later won acclaim in 1964 for the nationalistic “Leader”, screened against a backdrop of recent wars against China and Pakistan.
Kumar married the actress Saira Banu in 1966 when she was 22 years his junior.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Kumar a “cinematic legend”.
“He was blessed with unparalleled brilliant, his passing away is a loss to our cultural world,” Modi tweeted.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday joined the tributes, thanking Kumar for help raising funds for a cancer charity and saying he was “the greatest and most versatile actor” for his generation.
Preparations were being made for his funeral in Mumbai scheduled for later in the day. The area around his house was sealed off by police.
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