Dilip Kumar’s 90th birthday to be celebrated in Pakistan

WASIM KARIM

KARACHI:  Veteran Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar’s 90th birthday will be celebrated tomorrow at this birthplace in the Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province, from where he migrated to India.

The Cultural Heritage Council (CHC) of Khyper Pakhtoonkhwa will mark the occasion in Peshawar, according to media reports.

However, Dilip Kumar will not celebrate his birthday as he is still anguished by the recent deaths of several prominent personalities (and close personal friends) Shiv Sena Chief, Bal Thackeray, Filmmaker Yash Chopra, Rajesh Khanna and Dara Singh.

The legendary actor debuted in the movie Jwar Bhata in 1944. After that he appeared in 60 films including Daag, Devdas, Azaad, Naya Daur, Mughal-e-Azam and many other super-hits in the list.

In a blog post, Amitabh Bachchan once described Dilip Kumar as the greatest actor ever.

Dilip Kumar is the first actor to win a Filmfare Best Actor Award (1954) and shares the record for the most number (eight) of Filmfare awards won for that category with Shahrukh Khan.

In 1997, the Government of Pakistan conferred Kumar with the Nishen-e-Imtiaz.

The Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa administration recently planned to acquire the ancestral homes of Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor, and preserve them as national heritage sites.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2012