Happy 96th Birthday Dilip Kumar

While Dilip Kumar has been in and out of the hospital this year, family friend Faisal Farooqui gives an update about the veteran actor's health and how he is not a big fan of birthday celebrations.

Dilip Kumar who has been in and out of the hospital for his health condition this year will be celebrating his 96th birthday today. The veteran actor known of classic films like Mughal-E-Azam, Devdas, Kohinoor and many more, will be spending his birthday with close family and friends. Family Faisal Farooqi who has been updating about Dilip Kumar's health statuses on Twitter spoke to IANS about his health and birthday plans.

He said, "Saab has never wanted to celebrate birthdays. The last birthday we celebrated as a big event was his 89th birthday, which was in 2011 and of course, Saab enjoyed that. Dilip Saab is not a big fan of celebrating birthdays."

Dilip Kumar's wife Saira Banu who is 22 years younger to him, has been helping him recuperate from recurrent pneumonia. In fact, she will be hosting a bash for husband hosting around a dozen people. "He has not done that in a very long time and birthdays are occasions where the family gets together and some close friends get together. So, Saab's brothers and sisters would come, (his wife) Saira Banuji's extended family will come and then my family and some close friends gather together. Even when Saab was active socially and personally, he was not fond of big celebrations. So, doing justice to that tradition, Sairaji has not planned anything big," he said.

(Also read: My sahab, the man of my dreams: Saira Banu's beautiful message for 'Kohinoor' Dilip Kumar on their anniversary)

Sharing updates about his health, Faisal said, "He has not fully recovered but he is making great progress. Saab is resting at home, having his meals, interacting, but obviously one of the things that the doctor has advised us to be cautious about is the infections. So, we curb the access of a lot of people to meet him."

Although in the past, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Priyanka Chopra and others have visited him in the past but the fear of catching infections has restricted his social interaction.

Dilip Kumar was last seen in the Quila in 1998.