The melancholy Indian actor Dilip Kumar died on the screen at the age of 98. Reuters

Shilpa Jamkhandikar

Mumbai (Reuters)-Dilip Kumar is one of India’s most respected actors, known for his role as tragic heroes in Bollywood movies. His family said he Passed away on Wednesday morning.

Kumar is 98 years old and has been ill for some time, a doctor who treated him told reporters.

“He has breathing difficulties… We worked very hard. We had hoped that he would live to be 100 years old,” said Jalil Parkar, the actor’s doctor.

Mohammed Yusuf Khan was born in Peshawar in 1922 and is now in Pakistan. He was called Dilip Kumar after joining Bollywood in the 1940s. His wife Saira Banu survived, she was the top Bollywood heroine of the 1960s and 1970s.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan both expressed their condolences. Modi said that Kumar “has unparalleled brilliance.”

“For my generation, Dilip Kumar is the greatest and most versatile actor,” Khan said on Twitter.

At his residence in Mumbai, Bollywood stars flocked to him, including actor Shah Rukh Khan, producer Karan Johar and actress Vidia Baran.

The funeral will be held later on Wednesday.

Authorities in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, stated that they plan to restore the actor’s ancestral home in a narrow alley in the city.

“We are now working hard to protect it,” said Dr. Abdus Samad, the director of the archaeological department.

King of tragedy

After moving from Peshawar to Pune, India, Kumar filmed his first film “Jwar Bhata” in 1944, but it failed. His breakthrough role appeared in “Andaz” in 1949. He played an abandoned lover, caught in the triangle relationship between the woman he loved and her husband.

This role made him a star and began his career playing a tragic role.

Bimal Roy was adapted from Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s seminal novel “Devdas”, which was a turning point in his already successful career and made him a superstar.

He played the doomed lover in “Devdas” and earned Kumar the nickname “King of Tragedy”-the man who embodies melancholy on the screen.

Actor Amitabh Bachchan said on Twitter: “An institution has disappeared…Whenever the history of Indian cinema is written, it will always be’before Dilip Kumar and after Dilip Kumar” .

Kumar said he felt exhausted after playing a tragic role for many years. In the late 1950s, he consciously tried to play more optimistic roles, starring in romantic movies such as “Madhumati”, “Aan” and “Naya Daur”.

Another important professional milestone is K Asif’s “Mughal-E-Azam”, in which Kumar plays Prince Salim, the son of Mughal Emperor Akbar.

This 1960 film tells the story of the destined extramarital affair between the prince and the dancer. It was one of the most expensive works at the time, but later became the highest-grossing film of the year, with its gorgeous setting and gorgeous music scores.

In his later years, even though popular works were more difficult to obtain, Kumar still maintained his status as India’s first big-name star, and the faces on the posters were enough to make the audience swarm.