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The Lucknow link to how Yusuf Khan became Dilip Kumar
LUCKNOW Dilip Kumar, the legendary actor, was given many titles like ‘Tragedy King’ and ‘God of Acting’ in his illustrious career
LUCKNOW Dilip Kumar, the legendary actor, was given many titles like ‘Tragedy King’ and ‘God of Acting’ in his illustrious career. But there’s a story to how he got his screen name.
Noted writer, Bhagwati Charan Varma of Lucknow, gave him the name – Dilip Kumar in 1944.
“Bhagwati Charan Varma also penned the script of his first film Jwar Bhata,” said Dhirendra Varma,” the writer’s son.
“Super star Ashok Kumar used to work with Bombay Talkies as a lead hero in the 1940s. At that time, heroes were employed by production houses on salary basis and were not allowed to work for other production houses. Ashok Kumar had given many hits for Bombay Talkies and was the most popular of all actors of his time. But after the movie ‘Kismat’, Ashok Kumar decided to set up his own production house. So he moved away from Bombay Talkies and the owner of Bombay Talkies Devika Rani was quite upset about it,” he said.
Dhirendra Varma said, “She wanted a handsome and versatile actor to replace Ashok Kumar in her production house. She also had a script ‘Jwar Bhata’ penned by my father for the next film. Devika Rani spotted Yusuf Khan and called him for a screen test, which he passed easily. However, she wanted a romantic name for the actor because the script was an intense love story. She thought the name Yusuf Khan didn’t gel with the role.”
In fact, Dilip Kumar was also interested in changing his name as he never wanted his father to come to know about him working in a Bollywood film as he was against all this. “And Devika Rani looked up to Bhagwati Charan Varma for a new name for Yusuf Khan,” said Dhirendra Varma.
Noted writer Chandra Shekhar Varma, grandson of Bhagwati Charan Varma, said: “My grandfather suggested three names to Devika Rani – Dilip Kumar, Vasudev and Jehangir. Devika Rani wanted Dilip Kumar to choose Vasudev. But Yusuf Khan chose Dilip Kumar for himself. And the rest is history. Dilip Kumar shot to fame from his very first film, but he always remained thankful to Bhagwati Charan Varma for giving him a new identity in the cine world. He always considered Dilip Kumar as a lucky name for himself.”
Dhirendra Varma said, “In 2005, I, along with my daughter Shivani Varma, visited Dilip Kumar’s house in Mumbai. He didn’t allow us to leave for 4 to 5 hours and spoke a lot about Bhagwati Charan Varma, literature, Lakhnawi culture, mangoes of Malihabad and Peshawar (where the actor was born). The warmth was exemplary…he was so loving and caring.”
“It was the first Monday of Saawan and we were fasting. When he came to know about this, he arranged lassi, mewa and best of phalahari cuisine for us. Such was his eagerness to welcome anyone,” he added.
Bhagwati Charan Varma also penned another script ‘Chanakya’ for Dilip Kumar, but that film didn’t work out.
