Mumbai: Legendary actor Dilip Kumar turned 86 today and plans to spend the day in a quiet manner with family and close friends.
The thespian, who recovered from an illness recently, received his friends and old colleagues with warmth at his Bandra residence in the morning.
Referring to the recent Mumbai terror attacks, his wife Saira Banu said, "it will be a quiet birthday after what we have been through recently." Kumar said he thanked God for his benevolence and affection bestowed on him.
Considered as one of the greatest actors of Indian cinema, Kumar started his career in 1944 and went on to do some powerful roles till 1990s. He has delivered many hits in 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1980s.
His performances have been regarded as the epitome of emoting in Indian cinema. He was the first actor to receive Filmfare Best Actor Award and holds the record for maximum number of Filmfare Awards won for that category. He performed a variety of roles in films like Andaz (1949), Aan (1952), Devdas (1955), Azaad (1955) and the evergreen Mughal-e-Azam. After 1976 he took a five-year-break from movies. In 1981 he returned with a blockbuster `Kranti' and continued playing the character roles in hits like Shakti (1982), Karma (1986) and Saudagar (1991). His last film Qila came in 1998 and since then he has retired from the film industry.
Kumar was born Muhammad Yusuf Khan in Qissa Khawani Bazaar in Peshawar, in the then undivided India. Khan was born in a Pashtun family of 12 children. His father, Ghulam Sarwar, was a fruit merchant and owned large orchards in Peshawar and Deolali near Nashik in Maharashtra.
The family relocated to Mumbai in 1930s and in the early 1940s, Khan moved to Pune and started off with his canteen business and supplying dry fruits.
There he was spotted by a leading actress of those years, Devika Rani, who was also the wife of founder of Bombay Talkies Himanshu Rai. She helped his entry into the Hindi film industry and also gave him the screen name of Dilip Kumar.
