Listen to Story Veteran Bollywood actor Saira Banu has been quite vocal about her attempts to woo the thespian Dilip Kumar during her younger days. In a recent Instagram post, she reminisced about dressing up only for him and attending the premiere of K. Asif’s period drama Mughal-e-Azam, in the hope of sharing that 'one moment' with the man she adored.
For the premiere, Saira requested her mother to lend her the "most heavy gota-laden saree" despite "weighing a minimal paper weight kilos." Though the saree weighed "a ton," the actor was not dissuaded from wearing it. She shared, "I draped it up with my mother’s help and very bravely weathered the storm of swaying when I walked side-to-side with the heavy fabric.
" Saira Banu, who has earlier shared that she admired Dilip Kumar, whom she later married, since she was only 12 years old, wanted to stand out from the "bewitching beautiful ladies" who loved Kumar. A post shared by Saira Banu Khan (@sairabanu) "(I) was well aware of all the bewitching beautiful ladies such as the mind-bogglingly beauteous Madhubala and many others who were interested in Sahib, but do you think that anything could deter me from my dream of becoming Mrs. Dilip Kumar?" shared Saira.
But her dream of meeting the man she loved was shattered as Dilip Kumar didn't show up at the premiere of Mughal-e-Azam due to his tiff with K. Asif. Saira remembered, "Eventually, the ‘Premiere’ was on 5th AUGUST, 1960, at ‘MARATHA MANDIR,’ where the entire film industry had turned up, and my eyes wildly searched from one face to another, but there was no glimpse of Sahib.
The moment when I would exchange a glance with him went to waste, and I felt cascaded with cold water! (sic)." She continued, "Later on, I got to know that the great camaraderie and friendship between Sahib and his very close friend K. Asif, the director of Mughal-e-Azam, had soured because Asif Sahab had sprung a surprise on Sahib and his family by secretly marrying his younger sister Akhtar without breathing a word to Dilip Sahib (sic).
" After realising that Dilip Kumar wouldn't be showing up for the premiere, Saira Banu just sat there with her mother and was barely interested in watching the film. "To say the least, I sat in my seat with my mother, and you could have bowled me over if I had watched any one scene with interest or any heart. This was a major fiasco for me," added the actor.
Saira also shared that "because of these averse moments," Dilip Kumar never watched Mughal-e-Azam. It was only after years of their marriage that he watched the film at an event with her. She wrote, "Later, after our marriage, we were invited to the Film and Television Institute of Poona.
It was a charming experience wherein the students all gathered around Sahib, and the institute’s notables were honored to receive Dilip Sahab and to keep and maintain his films, which were screened repeatedly to those who were studying at the institute. I jumped with delight as soon as I got to know that they held Mughal-e-Azam as a lesson in drama. I requested them to screen Mughal-e-Azam and became instrumental in showing Mughal-e-Azam to Sahib for the very FIRST TIME.
What an honor! (sic)." In his autobiography, Dilip Kumar recalled the day he fell in love with Saira during a party thrown to celebrate her birthday and the housewarming of their new bungalow. A post shared by Saira Banu Khan (@sairabanu) “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." Kumar noted. “For once, she let go of her annoyance with me and looked straight into my eyes, and it did not take more than an instant for me to realise that she was the one destiny had been knowingly reserving as my real-life partner while I was refusing to pair with her on-screen!” he added.
Saira Banu and Dilip Kumar shared the screen in films like Gopi (1970) Sagina (1974) and Bairaag (1976)..
