Veteran actor Dilip Kumar’s 90th birthday Tuesday will be celebrated in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province where he was born before he migrated to India. The Cultural Heritage Council (CHC) of Khyper Pakhtoonkhwa will mark the occasion in Peshawar, an Indian peace activist said here Sunday. “The CHC has decided to celebrate the 90th birthday of the legendary actor for the first time ever,” Jatin Desai told IANS. He said CHC had invited prominent personalities including film personalities, journalists, lawyers, peaceniks and commoners to celebrate the birthday of Dilip Kumar a.k.a. Mohammed Yusuf Khan. Ironically, Dilip Kumar will not celebrate his birthday in Mumbai as he is still grieving the death of several prominent personalities in the past few months. These include Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, former union minister N.K.P. Salve, filmmaker Yash Chopra, Rajesh Khanna, Dara Singh and others. On his 89th birthday last year, he had a mega bash at his Pali Hill residence that attracted, among others, Yash Chopra and Rajesh Khanna. In July, a public effort was initiated to conserve Dilip Kumar’s ancestral home, now in a dilapidated condition in Peshawar. It was launched by civil society groups in Pakistan and Bangladesh and other organisations. The Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa administration recently planned to acquire the ancestral homes of Dilip Kumar and another Indian legend, Raj Kapoor, and preserve them as national heritage monuments. Locals have urged the authorities to rename certain parts of Peshawar after Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor.
