This seems like a more reasonable comparison, right? All three were number one actors and also the most intense actors of their generations. I thought long and hard before making this comparison, as I don’t want to be biased towards anyone because I belonged to their generation. However, here is a comparison that I have wanted to present since my college days.
Everyone will agree that Dilip Kumar was the most talented actor out of the three. Despite being intense, he also believed in delivering controlled performances. He started acting in movies in 1944 and his career spanned a period of five decades. He has acted in more than 60 films and still holds the record for the highest Filmfare Best Actor Awards with Shah Rukh with 8 wins. Few people of today’s generation know that he was a versatile actor and apart from doing intense and serious roles that literally turned him around like Mughal-E-Azam and Devdas, he also successfully acted in comedies and action movies like Aan, Azaad and Ram Aur Sham. Dilip-Saab, as he was popularly known, rarely saw a box office flop in his illustrious career. I’d be surprised if anyone has a better box office record in terms of hit percentage than him. It may be that Amir Khan does, but I’m sure no one else does. The first films that established him as the proverbial king of tragedy were Deedar, Amar, Andaz, Madhumati and Devdas. He also produced Ganga Jamna in 1961 and that remains his only production. David Lean, the famous British director offered him a role in the classic “Lawrence of Arabia”, but Dilip Kumar turned it down.
What’s more, absolutely no one has as good a track record as Dilip Kumar in major character roles. In Bollywood, where an actor’s movie life gradually declines as he ages, Dilip Kumar continued to deliver big hits to the sixties like Kranti, Shakti, Vidhata, Karma, Saudagar and Mashal. Dilip Kumar achieved several accolades including the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1994 and Pakistan’s highest civil congratulation Nishan-E-Pakistan. He also received Padma Bhushan in 1997 and was Sheriff of Mumbai in 1980. Apart from winning Filmfare Best Actor Award 8 times, he also received 19 nominations.
Although he has played several brilliant roles, my personal favorite remains Shakti, where, as a principled father, struggling to keep his son in line, he turned in a stunning performance and outshone his only serious competition: the biggest superstar of all time. times, Amitabh Bachchan in the role of his son. Although his role was destined to dominate Amitabh’s, he delivered a compelling performance like no other.
Shah Rukh Khan is the latest megastar to carry the torch of intense acting. He started his career on television and made a brilliant film debut in a short supporting role in Deewana. Shah Rukh has released many commercial hits in his time and is quite deservedly called King Khan. Some of his blockbusters, such as Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Dilwale Dulhaniya and Le Jayenge, have set box office records. Several of his films did big business abroad, making him one of the greatest Bollywood actors of all time.
After the magnificent debut in Deewana, he moved on to making low-budget films until scoring the first of his several massive hits in Baazigar. His anti-hero in the film showcased his ability to play villainous roles. This ability landed him another pair of hugely successful roles, namely Darr and Anzaam. He also played a sensitive role in a small movie called Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa. Facing the nightmare of being typecast as a villain, he delivered another coup as a conventional hero in Karan Arjun. Throughout his career, he had to face competition from two other Khans, namely Salman Khan and the more serious competition from Aamir Khan. Despite having had several hits, it was in the late 1990s that he finally established himself as the King of Bollywood. A plethora of hits would follow, including Yes Boss, Dil To Pagal Hai and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. In 2002 he starred in the remake of Dilip Kumar’s classic Devdas which earned him another Filmfare Best Actor award. He later also redid Amitabh Bachchan’s classic Don. His last big hit was My Name is Khan, which earned him his eighth Filmfare Best Actor Award. Despite upcoming challenges from younger actors, he is still the King of Bollywood.
Personally, I liked the low-budget movies he did with Aziz Mirza, such as Yes Boss and Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman, and I think his best performance to date remains Chak De. As a tarnished Muslim Indian hockey player, he put his life on the line the role and delivered a brilliant performance that won the hearts of all. The movie won many awards and was a huge commercial success. In particular, he did a couple of movies with Amitabh Bachchan as Mohabbatein and Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gam which didn’t really catch any fire, although the movies did well at the box office. Well, some sparks on Mohabbatein but nothing like the Amitabh-Dilip Kumar comparison.
Shah Rukh also produced several films of which Main Hoon Na and Chalte Chalte were highly successful. Although you would associate him more with commercial success, he was honored with Padma Shri in 2005. He also hosted the popular TV show Kaun Banega Karodpati following Amitabh Bachchan.
The biggest superstar of all was the great Amitabh Bachchan. He was a force in Hindi movies like no other. His angry youth movies in the 1970s are classics and people still watch them in awe. I have never seen any actor in Indian cinema with such a fascinating screen presence as Amitabh Bachchan. You couldn’t take your eyes off him. Who can forget those burning, incredibly focused eyes and booming voice? I am not going to waste time reciting his achievements here. Everybody knows them. An actor with incredible range and the ability to play all kinds of roles with authority made him an icon no one could compete with in the 1970s. He has played all kinds of roles and won all kinds of awards, but his greatest achievement remains his dominance of the Indian film industry in the 1970s. He was called “One Man Industry” at that time and no one could stand up to him. He was unprecedented and will probably never be achieved again. Those seventies revenge movies still give me goosebumps. What we are seeing today is a much milder person and actor, although that fire and brilliance can occasionally be seen in movies like Sarkar.
The purpose of this article is not to show that other actors did not approach these three. In fact, several actors did it like Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Ashok Kumar, KL Saigal, Rajesh Khanna, Aamir Khan etc. But the best and most successful and intense actors are these three. My verdict, at the risk of being corny, is Dilip Kumar. The actor was and still is the best actor of all, closely followed by Amitabh Bachchan.