‘Dilip Kumar was both inspiration and aspiration'

Dilip Kumar’s craft and personality embodied the magic that transcends Bollywood’s artifice

- Deepti Naval

As a student, I had a record of Lata Mangeshkar singing live at the Royal Albert Hall, and it was Dilip Kumar who introduced Lataji on stage. I remember we would keep lifting the needle and bringing it back to the edge, only because we wanted to hear his voice again and again. His Urdu was magical. In 1975, I was studying in New York and Dilip sa’ab came with Saira Banu for a function there. I wanted to interview him for my radio show, and when I called his hotel, I heard on the other side a man speaking wonderful English. In my head, Dilip sa’ab only spoke crisp Urdu. I refused to believe it was him. He would later pull my leg for this. When we met for the first time, I was in complete awe of him.

Even as a little girl who was excitedly running around with her tape recorder, I knew he was endearing but I could also tell that he was humble, approachable and extremely down to earth. He was the sole reason why I did