Dilip Kumar is one of the most celebrated actors in Indian cinema. He is credited with introducing Bollywood to the method acting style. In a career spanning more than six decades, Dilip Kumar appeared in over 65 movies.
The love story of Dilip Kumar and his wife Saira Banu is very renowned. On his first death anniversary let us look at some interesting facts about the couple.
Saira Banu had two dreams in life: one was to become a successful actress, and the other was to wed the love of her life, Dilip Kumar.
In one of her interviews, Saira Banu admitted that she first met Dilip Kumar when she was 12 years old in the movie Aan and fell in love with him right away.
When they got married, Dilip Kumar was 44 and Saira Banu was 22.
The couple could not bear a baby. In an interview with PTI, Dilip Kumar revealed, “It was also wrongly represented that Saira could not bear a child. The truth is that Saira had borne a child, a boy (as we came to know later), in 1972. We lost the baby in the eighth month of pregnancy… We took the loss in our stride as the will of God.”
While talking to Bombay Times, he had revealed, “I love children, but where’s the time to think about it? We have about 30 children from Saira’s family and my own, and they are enough to keep me occupied with their mischief. They are so full of energy that I get tired trying to cope with them.”
Saira Banu was with his side, by his death bed when the veteran actor passed away.
While inaugurating Dilip Kumar’s painting in Subhash Ghai institute, Saira Banu got emotional and said, “He is always with me”.