When Dilip Kumar Sold Sandwiches In Pune

With an impeccable career spanning six decades, Dilip Kumar is a veteran Bollywood actor popularly known as the king of tragedy. Dilip Kumar seems to have inspired several generations of actors, Shah Rukh Khan being one of them. We bring to you some of the lesser known facts about the veteran star.

Did you know?

• Before joining the movie studio, Bombay Talkies and becoming an actor, Dilip Kumar ran a sandwich stall at the Army Club in Pune. When the contract came to an end, he headed home to Mumbai, having saved Rs. 5000.
   
• Jwar Bhata was Dilip Kumar's debut in Bollywood. Apparently, the actor was spotted by Mrs Devika Rani. Sharing the experience Dilip Kumar said in an interview with Filmfare, "I was introduced to Mrs Devika Rani at the Bombay Talkies Studio by a family friend who was helping me find a job. She had not seen me anywhere before that. She offered me the job of an actor on a salary of Rs 1250 per month. I thought the amount offered was for a year, it being a sumptuous amount. So I requested a friend, Dr Masani, who took me to her, to find out whether I had heard it right. She told Dr Masani it was the monthly remuneration because she saw potential in me and did not want to lose me. It was a surprise and it spurred me to take the offer seriously without hesitation."
   
• Dilip Kumar declined to co-star Saira Banu because ‘she was too young to be my leading lady', whom eventually he ended up marrying. At the time of marriage, he was 44 and Saira Banu was 22.
   
• Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu have a very romantic tale behind their relationship. He apparently fell in love with Saira at her birthday party. A PTI report quoted Dilip Kumar, "When I alighted from my car and entered the beautiful garden that leads to the house, I can still recall my eyes falling on Saira standing in the foyer of her new house looking breathtakingly beautiful in a brocade saree. I was taken aback, because she was no longer the young girl I consciously avoided working with because I thought she would look too young to be my heroine." The report further quoted Dilip Kumar's romantic proposal, "Saira, you are not the kind of girl I want to drive around with, or be seen around with... I would like to marry you... Will you be my wife?"
   
• Dilip Kumar married Asma, a Hyderabadi girl in 1980. However, his second marriage didn't last long.
   
•  Dilip Kumar was the first person to win a Filmfare Best Actor Award.