If evergreen couples of Indian cinema were to be listed, the names of Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu would certainly be high up there on the list. Their marriage was the talk of the B-town because of the 22-year age difference between the two.
However, their love stood the test of time and lasted until Dilip Kumar’s last days. With a love story that could rival any romantic classic, even the first meeting of the two stars was nothing less than extraordinary.
For Saira Banu, who was a 12-year-old when she saw a 34-year-old Dilip Kumar on the bug screen, it was love at first sight. She longed to meet him someday and had a missed opportunity at age 16 in the form of the Mughal-e-Azam premiere. During the premiere attended by Saira on August 5 1960, she was hoping to finally meet her crush. But the actress was devastated when the star didn’t show up.
Saira Banu finally met Dilip Kumar a little while later when she had also made a name for herself in the industry. Saira called their first meeting magical. She described how she initially met him in a previous interview. She had stated, “I could feel my entire being taking flight and flying rapturously as he smiled at me and said that I was a gorgeous girl. I was aware deep down that one day I will be his wife."
Saira Banu soon started appearing in more and more films and was paired with many actors but she desired to star opposite Dilip Kumar. However, the renowned actor turned down numerous film offers with her because he believed she was too young to be cast opposite him. However, the young actress’s charm ultimately got the better of him.
In his autobiography, Dilip Kumar: The Substance and the Shadow, he wrote, “When I alighted from my car and entered the beautiful garden that leads to the house, I can still recall my eyes falling on Saira standing in the foyer of her new house looking breathtakingly beautiful in a brocade sari.
“I was taken aback because she was no longer the young girl I consciously avoided working with because I thought she would look too young to be my heroine. She had indeed grown to full womanhood and was in reality more beautiful than I thought she was. I simply stepped forward and shook her hand and, for us, time stood still."
The couple ultimately got married in 1966 when Saira was 22 and Dilip Kumar was 44. It is said that Saira’s mother took the initiative to talk to the actor about marrying his daughter. The couple shared a blissful 54 years of married life with their shares of ups and downs which included a miscarriage after which both of them decided not to have a child again.
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