Dilip Kumar
1922–2021
Yusuf Khan was selling sandwiches at an army canteen in Pune when Devika Rani offered him a contract, and as Dilip Kumar he became the actor every Hindi leading man since has been measured against. He brought a restraint nobody had used before - the method, years before the phrase reached India.
Devdas, Mughal-e-Azam, Ganga Jamuna, Ram Aur Shyam, and then after a five-year absence the character parts: Kranti, Shakti, Mashaal, Saudagar. Shakti put him opposite Amitabh Bachchan as father and son, which the industry read as a summit. He won eight Filmfare awards for best actor and the Dadasaheb Phalke in 1994.
