“छोटी सी उम्र में लग गया रोग, कहते हैं लोग…”
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Yesteryear actress Saira Banu has been unabashed about her love for Dilip Kumar since as far back as fans and journalists can remember. She’s even gone on record to say that right from the tender age of 12, she’d day-dream about marrying the superstar. Saira is the daughter of Naseem Banu, who was also an actress in her time and producer Milan Ehsan-Ul-Haq. A head-in-the-clouds and heart-on-her-sleeve kinda girl, she charmed audiences with her roles in films like Padosan, Zameer and more… but what Saira truly longed for was an everlasting, passionate romance with Dilip Saab. Nothing else really seemed to excite her and light up her eyes like the mention of the actor’s name.
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Saira was determined. She longed for a life of devotion towards Dilip and as luck would have it, the universe conspired to give it to her. Saira married the man of her dreams in 1966. “I am very headstrong and once I made up my mind, there was no stopping me. I knew many beautiful women wanted to marry Saab, but he chose me. It was my dream come true and that’s what my marriage has been, a perfect dream,” she told newspapers.
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In 2017, Kumar turned 95. On the special occasion, Saira let the world in on what it’s like to be married to the actor for 54 years. In an interview with Khaleej Times, she said, “Seriously, there is no woman as blessed as I am… I thank my Allah every day for this. It has been my good fortune to be able to do anything for the man I love intensely. For me, it was always Saab, no one else. I was his fan from the time I can remember. While still a teenager, I wanted to be his wife.”
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There’s a 22-year age difference between Saira and Dilip. When she tied the knot with him, she was 22 and he was 44. Once, the actress had even revealed to the media that when the first premiere of one of Kumar’s biggest hits Mughal-e-Azam took place in Mumbai’s famous Maratha Mandir, she was only 16 and had gone there just to get a glimpse of the star. Luckily, Saira’s stars were aligned that day as she not only got a good look at Kumar, but also received a warm smile and a compliment from him. “He called me a ‘pretty girl’ and it was from that time that I knew that someday I would be his wife. I was not just another girl smitten by Dilip Kumar but for me, it was no castle in the air. I had given my dream the strong foundation of faith – faith in myself and faith in God,” Saira told a tabloid. Talk about the law of attraction and cosmic connections…
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Saira was relatively new to the entertainment business when Kumar had already got a taste of stardom. In his autobiography, Dilip penned down in detail the moment he fell in love with Saira. It was at a birthday party that was thrown for her. “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.”
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Dilip proposed to Saira during the shoot of Jhuk Gaya Aasman. He said, “Saira, you are not the kind of girl I want to drive around with, or be seen around with… I would like to marry you… Will you be my wife?” Promptly came the response from Saira, “And how many girls have you said this to?” Her answer was only obvious. Since that day, Saira has been dedicated to loving and looking after her beloved husband, putting aside her career, her own family and everything else in between. When her decision was put under the microscope, she let the inner hopeless romantic clear the air. “Saab never asked me to give up my career. In fact, he encouraged me to continue after marriage. But, after a while, my heart was not in my career. I just wanted to take care of saab. Our marriage is the most important thing in my life,” she said.
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In the multiple-decade-long marriage, Kumar strayed once. In the early 1980s, he was linked to many of his co-stars – Waheeda Rehman, Madhubala and Vyjanthimala and others. None of them were true. However, after his marriage to Saira, Kumar allegedly fell for a Pakistani fan named Asma Rehman. He went as far as making her his second wife, but the marriage didn’t last too long. Kumar went on to say that he was apparently “trapped” into marrying her. All this while, Saira bore the humiliation with patience, believing that her love would come to his senses someday. Her love remained unshakable.
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A few years ago, Kumar’s health began to deteriorate. He was diagnosed with a severe kidney issue and life hasn’t been the same for the star or his wife since. Saira says Dilip falling ill is her worst nightmare come true. Ongoing treatments at home, having to frequent hospitals… Saira has been through hell and high-waters with Kumar.
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In 2017, after a death-scare post admission into Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital, the doctor that attended to Saab called Saira a “Sati-Savitri” after observing her commitment towards Kumar. Saira laughed at the remark and said, “If a woman’s husband is India’s Kohinoor, why won’t his wife be sati Savitri? All wives love their husbands and it’s no big deal. Whatever I am doing I won’t say that I am taking care of him… It is my love for him and I am ready to do it 100 times more for him.”
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Today, at 76 herself, Saira is still devoted to taking care of her ailing husband. Speaking of the same, she told a newspaper, “Looking after Saab, his life and his home comes naturally to me. All Indian wives look after their husbands. In my family, I’ve seen women being devoted to their husbands. I grew up watching that.” Saira’s affection towards Dilip is clear. She’s always showering him with kisses, responding to fans on his behalf and aggressively refuting rumours about the love of her life being on his deathbed.
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“I am lucky to be so close to him for so many years. I couldn’t have chosen a better life. I can’t imagine any other life for me. I guess if I was chosen to be his wife, I must be special. Unki biwi hone ke liye caliber honi chahiye. I am still head over heels in love with my Kohinoor… the way I was when I first felt attracted to him as a 12 year-old. Ours has been as good and enduring a marriage as so many marriages that have survived the ups and downs for four decades. No marriage is perfect. How can it be, when as human beings we are not perfect? It is mutual love, respect and adoration that keep a marriage ticking,” says Saira. She has unknowingly urged the world into believing that love is the most powerful force in the universe.
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