Legendary actor Dilip Kumar breathed his last at Mumbai's Hinduja Hospital on Wednesday morning. He had been facing regular health issues for months now.
The actor has left a void in cinema and a huge body of work behind, for future filmmakers and actors to learn from.
Popularly known as the 'Tragedy King' of Bollywood, Kumar was known as a method actor who was never limited to genres. In a career spanning more than five decades, the prolific legend was part of comedies, dramas, romance, and so on.
Some of his best known films include 'Daag', 'Devdas', 'Madhumati', 'Azaad', 'Mughal-e-Azam', 'Gunga Jamuna', 'Kranti', 'Karma', 'Ram Aur Shyam', among others.
Political career and humanitarian works
The late actor was more than just an actor. He served as a politician for a brief period in his life and was also involved in various humanitarian works.
Dilip Kumar was nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Parliament of India, by the Indian National Congress for the period 2000–2006 from Maharashtra.
He also served as the sheriff of Bombay in 1980.
On March 14, 2000, the veteran star filed his nomination papers in Mumbai to run as a Congress Party candidate in the local assembly elections. He had filed his nomination papers in the presence of then Maharashtra Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.
In the troubled early 1990s, when Mumbai was riven by communal tension, Dilip Kumar emerged as a figure of peace. During the 1993 riots in the city, stories abound of how he opened his home and made it a command centre for relief work.
Dilip Kumar had been involved with a number of charitable and social initiatives as well. He planned and conceptualised the famous Jogger's Park in Bandra, along with Sunil Dutt and Oliver Andrade.
He used his good offices to get the necessary clearances from the Maharashtra Government for the establishment of this public park.
He utilised a significant portion of his MPLAD fund towards the construction and improvement of the Bandstand Promenade and the gardens at Bandra Fort at Lands End in Bandra.
Awards Aplenty
He was a much awarded artist, honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 1991 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2015 as well as the Dadasaheb Phalke in 1994.
In 1998, somewhat controversially, he was awarded the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, the Pakistan government’s highest civilian award. The following year, the Kargil war between the two countries broke out and Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray demanded he return the award. But the actor refused to succumb and met then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the matter.
As the years passed and age caught up with him, Dilip Kumar withdrew from the public eye but like most stars never faded away.
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