New Delhi: Veteran actor Dilip Kumar passed away aged 98 on Wednesday morning.
The demise of the Bollywood actor was confirmed by Dr Jalil Parkar, the pulmonologist who was treating Dilip Kumar at Mumbai’s PD Hinduja Hospital.
The actor was 98 and is survived by his wife, veteran actor Saira Banu.
He was admitted to Hinduja hospital in Mumbai after he complained of breathlessness.
Dilip Kumar — born Yusuf Khan — was a trendsetter in terms of acting style, and inspired generations of actors across the various streams of Indian cinema. Regarded as one of the greatest actors that India has ever seen, his career spanned over five iconic decades. One of the legends of Golden Age of cinema in India, he was considered a master of understatement, and eschewed the loud and theatrical elements of acting.
Some of his best known films are Devdas, Mughal-e-Azam, Gunga Jamuna, Ram Aur Shyam, Naya Daur, Madhumati, Kranti, Vidhaata, Shakti and Mashaal, to name just a few.
Dilip Kumar was born in the Qissa Khawani Bazaar area of Peshawar (present day Pakistan) to Ayesha Begum and Lala Ghulam Sarwar Khan. He debuted in films with 1944’s Jwar Bhata, but the film and his work did not garner much attention. It was with 1947’s Jugnu, also starring Noor Jehan, that he clinched his first box office hit.
