Veteran Bollywood actor and theatre personality Naseeruddin Shah revealed some interesting things about late superstar Dilip Kumar, who passed away last week July 7, after prolonged illness.
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After suffering from pneumonia, Shah, who was hospitalised on June 29, was discharged from the hospital on June 7, the same day legendary actor Dilip Kumar passed away at the Hinduja Hospital.
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Naseeruddin revealed that Dilip’s wife Saira Banu had visited him in the hospital and told him that 'sahab' was asking about him. Shah was utterly moved and heartbroken to learn that Dilip Sahab died the same day he got discharged.
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Shah was quoted by The Quint saying, “(Sairaji) put her hand on my head and blessed me and said Sahab (Dilip Kumar) was asking about you. I was deeply moved. I wanted to meet him before I left. But unfortunately, the day I left, he also left.”
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Long back during his documented chat, Shah had spoken about Dilip Saab. He said how watching Dilip Saab’s films made him realise he was always ahead of his time. “My father was the Deputy Collector at Nainital when we were small, he was posted there. He never saw Hindi movies. He never allowed us to see Hindi movies, except for Mr Dilip Kumar’s movies. I think he had a secret, deep admiration for him. So, I remember seeing films like ‘Uran Khatola’, ‘Azaad’, ‘Kohinoor’ and ‘Insaniyat’ when I was a child.”
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During that interview, Naseeruddin also talked about how he had slept in a zari factory, and his family had no idea about his whereabouts in Mumbai.
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It was Dilip Kumar who had kept him at his house for a week before sending him home. “I didn’t give a thought to what my parents were going through. I never wrote them a letter. They had no idea where I was. They didn’t even know if I was alive… Finally, as luck would have it, they got in touch with Mr Dilip Kumar, who my father happened to know through his eldest sister, Sakina Aapa, who used to come to Ajmer, where my father was the administrator of Dargah Garib Nawaz. They found me sitting on the pavement and packed me off home, but not before I spent a week or so at Mr Dilip Kumar's house,” Shah recalled.
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When a Shah told Dilip Kumar he desired to be an actor, the superstar advised him against it. Kumar then said,“I think you should go back and study. People from good families should not try to become actors.”
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Remembering that chat with Dilip Kumar, Naseeruddin said that he respected him and was too much in awe that he couldn’t ask how he became a star in the first place. Shah said, “Dilip Saab was something else… I didn’t have the courage, I was too awed by him, like every other actor in India. He was above all.”
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