Religion

No, Dilip Kumar did not donate his property to Waqf Board

Written by Md Mahfooz Alam

With the demise of legendry actor Dilip Kumar, there have been many unsubstantiated claims doing rounds on social medial. One such claim is that the actor donated his property to Muslim Waqf Board. This claim is being made to tarnish the secular credentials of Dilip Kumar.

Dilip Kumar was born in a Muslim family and his parents had named him Muhammad Yusuf Khan. When he joined Bollywood, he adopted Dilip Kumar as the screen name on the advice of his producer Devika Rani.

A Twitter user Aaru Rajgaur in a tweet claimed that Dilip Kumar has donated his property to the Waqf Board and did not give a single penny to the Temple.  The caption along with the post reads, “सेकयुलर हिंदु ओं के गाल पर करारा तमाचा है ये।”. (This is a slap on the cheeks of secular Hindus.)

Aaru Rajgaur also attached an image of Dilip Kumar in the tweet. The image also has text written in Hindi which reads: “मुहम्मद यूसुफ उर्फ दिलीप कुमार के लिए आंसू बहाने वाले काफिर दोगलों, आंखें खोलो और देखो…उसे जलाया नही कब्रिस्तान में दफनाया गया और तो और वो अपनी संपत्ति वक्फ बोर्ड को देकर गया है मंदिरों को फूटी कौड़ी भी नहिं दी..” (Infidels shed tears for Muhammad Yusuf alias Dilip Kumar, open your eyes and see… he was not burnt but buried in the graveyard, and he has given his property to the Waqf Board and has not given even a penny to the temples..) (Archived)

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/Screenshot)

The archive version of the same claim can be accessed here and here.

The whole country mourned the death of the legendry actor irrespective of religion and his funeral took place with full state honour at Juhu Qabrastan in Mumbai. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and many other well-known personalities went to his home to condole with his wife Saira Bano.

FactO Check:

We did not find any news report of Dilip Kumar donating his property to Waqf Board. We reached out to Faisal Farooqui, the spokesperson of Dilip Kumar.  He categorically denied the claim of Dilip Kumar donating his property to the Waqf Board. He said that the claims are “fake” and he also called out the users by saying “IDs posting them are also fake”.

Note: We have also reached out to Waqf Board(Mumbai) to corroborate the claim, the story will be updated as soon as they reply.

Why the Actor adopted his screen name, Dilip Kumar?

In his autobiography, Dilip Kumar: The Substance and the Shadow, the veteran actor has penned down the reason behind changing his name from Muhammad Yusuf Khan to Dilip Kumar. He wrote that Devika Rani influenced her to adopt Dilip Kumar his screen name

And the late actor in an interview with Mahendra Kaul in 1970, had said the real reason behind his name was also ‘pitayi ka darr’ (fear of thrashing) from his father. Because his father never liked his acting career and called it ‘nautanki’.

He was born on 11 December 1922 in Pakistan. His Parents Lala Ghulam Sarwar Khan and Ayesha Begum hailed from Peshawar. Peshwar was part of undivided India, now Peshwar is in Pakistan. Dilip Kumar ancestral home still stands in Peshwar which will be converted into a museum.

(Inputs about the real name of the Dilip Kumar from an article published in India Today)

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About the author

Md Mahfooz Alam

Mahfooz is a multimedia journalist and regularly writes fact-check stories for Facto News. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. He has worked as an intern fact-checker for The Quint. He specializes in research and fact-checking and aspires to do investigative reporting.

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