Afghanistan Times
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By Hafiz Ahmadi
KABUL: Dilip Kumar, the legendary and veteran Indian actor who has a great number of fans in Afghanistan passed away on Wednesday, July 07 due to illness at a Mumbai hospital.
Kumar was born in a Muslim family of Pashtoon origin on December 11, 1922 in the Qissa Khwani Bazaar neighborhood of Peshawar, British India (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa). He was named Mohammad Yusuf. His family then moved to Bombay now Mumbai where he got the chance of entering the film industry in 1940s.
Kumar has worked in more than 65 movies in five decades mostly in Hindi language movies. He was called as Tragedy King and everyone believes that he was one of few greatest actors who will not be repeated in the industry.
Kumar received eight Filmfare Awards for Best Actor and was nominated 19 times.
Andaz, Deedar, Mughal-e-Azam, Madhumati, Naya Daur, Daag, Devdas, Kranti, Shakti, Vidhata and Saudagar are among his major hit movies.
In 1966, he married Saira Banu a Hindi language actress herself. The couple has no children.
Besides India, Dilip Kumar has millions of fans in other countries. Afghans who are interested in Hindi movies know and respect late Dilip Kumar. Many people in Kabul said they were saddened over the demise of Kumar, with former president Hamid Karzai expressing his condolences to Kumar’s family and the people of the friendly country of India.
“With regrets I learnt that legendary Indian movie star Dilip Kumar (Yusuf Khan) who has millions of fans, passed away,” Karzai said Wednesday in a statement. “When I expressed my wishes for his birthday in 2019, he thanked me in Pashto. May His Soul Rest In Peace!”
In a separate statement, Karzai said: “Dilip Kumar, the legend of our time, is no more with us. May Allah (SWT) keep him in Janatul Ferdous. Dilip Sahib was loved by millions and millions. My profound condolences to Begum Saira Banu, family and fans.”
Afghanistan and India maintain long friendly relationships and the people of Afghanistan know India and its people mostly through the Bollywood movies. Hindi movies are widely popular in Afghanistan and they dominated all cinema halls in Kabul in the 1980s before the devastating civil war.
The friendly relations and Afghanistan’s natural beauties attracted Indian movie producers’ attention to come and shoot their films. In 1975, late Feroz Khan shot his super hit movie of Dharmatma in Bamyan and Kunduz.
Bollywood’s superstar Amitabh Bachchan came to Kabul in 1991 for Khuda Gawah which was shot in Kabul and Baghlan province.
