When it is about matters related to the heart, we all turn to Bollywood for help. Hindi movies are a major reason why most of us want to experience love because who does not want to dance to ‘tip tip barsa paani’ at least once in their lives?

While love has not been a bed of roses for several actors in the Hindi Film Industry, the romance of Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu has only blossomed during the years. If there is one love story that has aged like fine wine, it is theirs. 

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Saira Banu once claimed that she fallen for the the legend at the mere age of 12 and she wanted to be “Mrs Dilip Kumar”, after watching his film ‘Aan'(1952)

She also told The Hindu, “I had dreamt of only two things in life; to become famous like my mother and marry Dilip Sahab. Allah granted me both, what more could I ask for?”

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Saira had said in an interview: “When he smiled at me and remarked that I was a pretty girl, I could feel my whole being taking wing and flying rapturously. I knew somewhere deep within me that I was going to be his wife.” It was only six years later that the two got married in a close, family function.

Reminiscing the time he fell for Saira, Dilip Kumar wrote in his memoir Dilip Kumar: The Substance and The Shadow, “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.” 

In 2014, Saira had said about Dilip, “I am still head over heels in love with my Kohinoor, Yousuf Sahab, the way I was when I first felt attracted to him as a 12 year-old. Our marriage has been as good and enduring as so many marriages that have survived the ups and downs for four decades. No marriage is perfect. How can it be, when as we, as human beings aren’t perfect? It is mutual love, respect and adoration that keep a marriage ticking.”  

With their marriage having lasted for more than half a century, the association fills us with nothing but awe. They’re still in as much love as they were in 1966, the year they got married and this is something we all respect because their romance managed to persist in an era of broken marriages.