Veteran Bollywood actor, Dilip Kumar who celebrated his 93rd birthday on Friday and Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis have planned a very special birthday gift for him.
He will be conferred upon Padma Vibhushan at the thespian’s residence, a senior Home Ministry official said.
The announcement to honour Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan and a few others with Padma Vibhushan was made by the government on the eve of Republic Day on January 25, 2015.
However, the acting legend could not attend the special function held in Rashtrapati Bhavan in April when other Padma awardees were honoured by President Pranab Mukherjee.
Dilip Kumar was born as Muhammad Yusuf Khan, the son of a Pathan fruit merchant Ghulam Sarwar, on December 11, 1922 in the Qissa Khawani Bazaar in Peshawar in present day Pakistan.
The veteran actor is known for his classics like “Mughal-e-Azam”, “Naya Daur”, “Devdas”, “Madhumati”, “Ganga Jamuna”, “Azad” and “Leader”, is already a recipient of Padma Bhushan in 1991 and Dada Saheb Phalke award in 1994.
Kumar’s nuanced performances and his dedication to the craft has been an inspiration for generations of actors.
Despite a limited cinematography of 60-odd films, many of his movies make it to the classics list of Indian cinema be it tragic love story of ‘Devdas’, incarnation story of ‘Madhumati’, the sweeping historical epic ‘Mughal-e-Azam’, ‘Andaz’, ‘Naya Daur’ or ‘Dil Diya Dard Liya’.