“Whenever the history of Indian cinema will be written, it’ll always be before Dilip Kumar and after him” – Amitabh Bachchan

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Today marked the unfortunate demise of the legendary actor and the greatest contributor of Indian cinema, Dilip Kumar. The thespian passed away on the early morning of July 7 at the age of 98. The actor gave a new life to the Indian cinema. His contribution to the craft of cinema is just unforgettable. Today, as he passed away, we take you through a throwback interview of Amitabh Bachchan where he claimed Dilip Kumar to be the greatest actor of all time.

9 years ago, while talking to Bollywood Hungama, megastar Amitabh Bachchan paid a rich homage to Dilip Kumar with whom he had worked in Shakti. He said, “To me, Dilip Sahab, I've never really looked beyond that because he's been my idol. I've watched every one of his works. I always feel that whenever the history of Indian cinema will be written, it'll always be before Dilip Kumar and after Dilip Kumar. That's almost like a yardstick. He's been phenomenal. My greatest regret though was that one of his films, which I thought was his best work and most brilliant was Ganga Jamuna, he never got any award for that as well. Many times some of our artists and sometimes you also feel that you deserved to have got an award, but you didn't get it. You console yourself by this fact that if Dilip Kumar couldn't get it for Ganga Jamuna, who the hell are you?”

Dubbed as the tragedy king in Indian cinema for his phenomenal performances, Dilip Kumar, born as Mohammed Yusuf Khan, acted in over 65 films in his legendary career. Kumar made his acting debut in 1944 with Jwar Bhata. Three years after, the 1947 drama Jugnu opposite Noor Jehan, was the first major hit for Kumar. He was part of the movies like Daag (1954), Devdas (1955), Azaad (1956), Naya Daur (1957), Mughal-e-Azam (1960), Ganga Jamuna (1961), Ram Aur Shyam (1967),  Dastaan (1972), Kranti (1981), and Karma (1986). He was last seen in Qila in 1998.

Also Read: Jeetendra pays a heartfelt tribute to Dilip Kumar – “His contribution to cinema and our lives is huge”

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