India is mourning the passing of Bollywood heavyweight Dilip Kumar, who built and defined the genre in the 1950s and 60s. The actor, who died at 98, was one of the last living movie stars of the classical era. He is also still the actor who – together with 55-year-old Shah Rukh Khan – has the most Filmfare Awards for Best Actor to his name. Kumar won the trophy a total of eight times, bagging four trophies in the 1950s, including at the inaugural Filmfare Awards in 1954, three more in the 1960s and a last one in 1983.
Among the actor’s biggest hits are social drama Daag, which earned him his first Best Actor award, and Deedar, a story of two lovers separated by class difference – which established Kumar as the “king of tragedies”. Dilip Kumar was known as a method actor and gravitated towards heavy, emotional roles throughout his career.
Other than Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Hrithik Roshan come closest to the actor's number of Filmfare Best Actor wins, but neither is likely to surpass him anytime soon. When it comes to laureates of the Best Actress category, classical actress Nutan and 46-year-old Kajol share the most wins at five each, but are closely followed by three actresses with four wins each. Meena Kumari also hailed from Bollywood’s golden age, while Madhuri Dixit started her career in the 1980s and Vidya Balan saw her biggest successes in the 2000s and 2010s.
