KP govt decides to buy Dilip Kumar's ancestral house in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to purchase the ancestral home of Bollywood icon and legendary actor Dilip Kumar (Yousuf Khan) to convert it into a museum.

The archaeology department has written a letter in this regard to the district administration, who in response has enforced Section-144 in the vicinity of the house.

MPA Kamran Khan Bangash, the special assistant to KP chief minister on Information and higher education, told Geo News on Tuesday that the provincial government is determined to buy the Kumar's house.

He said that the section-4 has been enforced on any sale or purchase of the house as the government is going to buy it. The house has already been declared a national heritage.

Bangash said that in the first stage, the provincial government is providing funds for purchasing the house while in the second phase, repair and renovation work will be carried out to revive it in its original condition, the MPA said.

He said that later, the house will be converted into a museum to pay tribute to the great actor of all times. The museum will feature biography, photographs of Yousuf Khan and his family's affiliation with Peshawar and other records of the legend.

Kumar was born as Yousuf Khan on December 11, 1922 in Khudadad Mohalla, on the back side of Qissa Khwani Bazar of Peshawar. He moved to Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1935 along with his father Lala Ghulam Sarwar and his family for business.

Yousuf Khan joined the film industry in the early 1940s and began his acting career as Dilip Kumar.