The House of Dilip Kumar, Peshawar housed the Indian film actor

Dilip Kumar Dilip Kumar (born Muhammad Yusuf Khan; 11 December 1922 – 7 July 2021) was an Indian actor and film producer, who worked in Hindi cinema. Credited with pioneering method acting in cinema, he dominated Hindi cinema from the 1950s throughout t ...

. Born as Mohammad Yusuf Khan in

Peshawar Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...

(

North West Frontier Province The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP; ) was a province of British India from 1901 to 1947, of the Dominion of Pakistan from 1947 to 1955, and of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan from 1970 to 2010. It was established on 9 November 1901 from ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

) on , he was one of twelve siblings and moved to

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

in the late 1930s with his family. It was named as a Pakistani national heritage monument on 13 July 2014 by the

Pakistani Prime Minister The prime minister of Pakistan (, romanized: Wazīr ē Aʿẓam , ) is the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen cabinet, despite the president of Pakistan ser ...

Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani politician and businessman who served as the 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan, prime minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms, first serving from 1990 to 1993, then ...

. Kumar once visited his house and sentimentally kissed the soil. In 1988, during a visit to Peshawar, he gave an interview at the PC Hotel in which he fondly recalled the days of his childhood and growing up, lapsing into

Hindko Hindko (, , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken by several million people of various ethnic backgrounds in northwestern Pakistan, primarily in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern Pun ...

and

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

time to time. In 1997, when he was awarded

Nishan-e-Imtiaz The Nishan-e-Imtiaz (; ) is one of the state organized Civil decorations of Pakistan, civil decorations of Pakistan. It is awarded for achievements towards world recognition for Pakistan or outstanding service for the country. However, the awa ...

, Pakistan's highest civilian honor, he was unable to reach the house because of uncontrollable crowds. Meanwhile, the government had been trying to acquire the house.

Location

The house is located in the

Qissa Khawani Bazaar The Qissa Khwani or Kissa Khwani Bazaar (, ; ''"Story-tellers market'') is a bazaar in Peshawar, the capital of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Background The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (then North-West Frontier Province) province Gazetteer, ...

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ; , ; abbr. KP or KPK), formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Northern Pakistan, northwestern region of the country, Khyber ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Acquisition

On 13 July 2013, Nawaz Sharif directed the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage to acquire the house. The order was forwarded to the Director General of

Pakistan National Council of Arts Pakistan National Council of the Arts (, or PNCA) was established through an Act of Parliament in 1973 with the mandate to lead the development of arts in Pakistan. PNCA policies are framed by its Board of Governors which reports to the Federa ...

(PNCA) for implementation. According to media sources, the move was intended to promote the cultural India-Pakistan relations.

Conversion to museum

The

Pakistani government The Government of Pakistan () (abbreviated as GoP), constitutionally known as the Federal Government, commonly known as the Centre, is the national authority of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a federal republic located in South Asia ...

planned to convert the site into a museum after acquisition. Planning was also being made to invite Dilip Kumar and other members of his family. On 26 July 2014, the house was declared a "protected monument" under the Antiquity Act of 1997.

Dilip Kumar and the Kapoor family

Both growing up in

and in

, Dilip Kumar and his family had close friendly relationship with the Kapoors. In his autobiography, ''The Substance and The Shadow'', Kumar writes: "We were living in undivided India at the time and there was a sizeable

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

population. Men as well as women mingled freely with

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

in the market square, wishing each other and exchanging pleasantries ever so cheerfully. Aghaji (my father), had many Hindu friends, and one of them was Basheshwarnathji, who held an important job in the civil services. His elder son came to our house with him a few times and he stunned the ladies with his handsome appearances. That was

Raj Kapoor Raj Kapoor (; born as Shrishti Nath Kapoor; 14 December 1924 2 June 1988; also known as Ranbir Raj Kapoor) was an Indian actor, film director and producer, who worked in Hindi cinema. He is considered to be one of the greatest and most influen ...

's father

Prithviraj Kapoor Prithviraj Kapoor (born Prithvinath Kapoor; 3 November 1906 – 29 May 1972) was an Indian actor who is also considered to be one of the founding figures of Hindi cinema. He was associated with IPTA as one of its founding members and establish ...

." "Bollywood finds roots in Peshawar"
tribune.com.pk, 19 December 2014.

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