Raaj Kumar attempted to one up Dilip Kumar in Saudagar, demanded good dialogues, says co-star: ‘Dilip stole the scene with his expressions’

Dilip Kumar is remembered as one of the most revered and respected actors in Indian cinema. Popularly known as the ‘Tragedy King’, Dilip Kumar was often credited as the first superstar of Hindi films, and he continued to deliver stellar performances until much later in his career. But, he had an unspoken rivalry with actor Raaj Kumar, which allegedly started during the shoot of their 1959 film Paigham, and continued when they reunited for the 1991 film Saudagar. In a new interview, Parikshit Sahni shared that Raaj Kumar wanted to one up Dilip Kumar, but the latter had devised a way around that.

In a chat with ANI, Parikshit shared, “Whenever Raaj Kumar acted with Dilip saab, he tried his best to one up him.” He shared that the easiest way to overshadow another actor was to get better dialogues and Raaj Kumar “always insisted on having good dialogues.” Dilip Kumar, Parikshit said, would not indulge in such things. “He let the other fellow speak as many dialogues as he wanted. He would say, ‘Let him say my dialogues as well’ and he would just listen. But his reaction would be so good, when the other guy spoke, that the camera focused more on him, rather than Raaj Kumar,” he recalled.

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After working together in Paigham, the two actors didn’t work together for decades. Reportedly, it was on the set of Paigham that Raaj Kumar accidentally slapped Dilip Kumar a little too hard during a scene. This offended Dilip Kumar deeply. In fact, years later, when Subhash Ghai wanted the two of them to work together again for Saudagar, he knew it would be a tall task.

In fact, during the shoot of Saudagar, the friction increased when Raaj Kumar threw a fistful of gulaal on Dilip Kumar, and the latter walked off from the set. Actor Prashant Narayanan, who was one of the assistants on the film, previously told Siddharth Kannan, “Raaj Kumar was supposed to grab a pinch of the colour and throw it near Dilip saab’s face. But Raaj Kumar grabbed a fistful of gulaal from the thali that I was holding and threw it on Dilip Kumar’s face with full force. He recoiled in shock, he seemed to be in pain, and he rubbed his eyes. He stormed off. Subhash ji (Subhash Ghai) immediately shouted, ‘Lights off!’ Raaj Kumar, who stood there exclaimed, ‘Pack up!’ There was no way Dilip saab was coming back to the set again.”