Actor Dilip Kumar will be awarded with Padma Vibhushan

“Dilip Kumar’s house is in shamble and if it collapsed, we will lose a great asset which will not be less than a tragedy”, he said.

While Rajinikanth will turn 65 on Saturday, December 12, it is Dilip Kumar’s 93rd birthday on Friday, December 11.

On Zee Classic, the daylong celebrations will start with “Leader” (7.50 am), where Vijay Khanna (Kumar) a law graduate-cum-tabloid editor is accused of a murder while general elections are underway. It’s my elder brother Dilip Kumar’s birthday today. He was last seen on the silver screen in 1998’s Qila.

There is a pervading sense of doom attached to both Devdas and Vijay but the latter is a far more nuanced role and this writer feels had Dilip sahab played Vijay the spotlight would have been exclusively on the character and not how the character interacted or responded to the world surrounding him, which separates Pyaasa from Devdas. Paresh Rawal described him as “the trendsetter of modern acting in Indian cinema and a true ambassador of Indian values” while Subhash Ghai called him “the legend of legends” and Javed Akhtar the “Everest of Talent, Taj Mahal of culture and Sangam of dignity and charm”. “We will have a quiet birthday this year with family only, we will have dinner together”.

For Anil Kapoor he was a “father figure”, for Abhishek Bachchan an inspiration “showing us the way” and Randeep Hooda admitted to feeling closer to him after reading his autobiography: The Substance and the Shadow.

“This is not less than an honour for us that two Indian film legends who conquered the Indian film Industry born in Peshawar”, he said. But the film Zabardast never got completed as both Husain and the actor found each other’s working styles to be too different. Happy birthday @TheDilipKumar. Adnan Sami: @TheDilipKumar. You were and will remain the best!