Dilip Kumar’s love for Madras

During the making of Ram aur Shyam, the thespian had temporarily shifted base to the city

One of the interesting sidelights of Dilip Kumar’s autobiography, The Substance and The Shadow, (Hay House, 2014) is the love he had for Chennai. He calls it the most erudite and culturally wealthy city of India. Some of his great film successes were made here and the city kept coming back into his life at crucial moments. The first was in the early 1950s. His career had skyrocketed, and he was the tragedy king. But the roles were making him depressed and while in London, he met fellow actors Margaret Rutherford and Sibyl Thorndike, who advised him to see a psychiatrist. Dr. W.D. Nichols, when consulted, suggested that Dilip Kumar shift to genres other than tragedies. Rather coincidentally, S.M. Sriramulu Naidu of Pakshiraja Studios, Coimbatore wanted to remake his MGR-Bhanumati starrer Malaikkallan in Hindi, and offered it to Dilip Kumar. The film, Azaad (1955, co-starring Meena Kumari) became a huge success. Dilip Kumar writes that it “was the first film that gave me the much-needed confidence to forge ahead with a feeling of emancipation and a sense of achievement.” Happily for him, his career gave him varied roles thereafter.