Famous Bollywood actor Yusuf Khan, better known to many by his stage name Dilip Kumar has died at the age of 98. 

Indian Prime Minister, Nerendra Modi, led the tributes to pay homage to the legendary actor saying in a tweet:

“Dilip Kumar Ji will be remembered as a cinematic legend. He was blessed with unparalleled brilliance, due to which audiences across generations were enthralled. His passing away is a loss to our cultural world. Condolences to his family, friends and innumerable admirers. RIP.”

Pakistani PM Imran Khan also tweeted his tribute to Khan:

“Saddened to learn of Dilip Kumar’s passing. I can never forget his generosity in giving his time to help raise funds for SKMTH when project launched. This is the most difficult time – to raise first 10% of the funds & his appearance in Pak & London helped raise huge amounts.”

Born on December 11, 1922 in Peshawar, modern day Pakistan, Dilip Kumar’s real name was Mohammad Yusuf Khan. His strict father, Lala Ghulam Sarwar, didn’t approve of movies whatsoever.

Starring in hit films such as ‘Jugnu’, ‘Shaheed’, ‘Andaz’, ‘Jogan’, ‘Daag’, ‘Aan’, ‘Devdas’, ‘Naya Daur’ and ‘Mughal-e-Azam’, Khan’s influence not just in India and Pakistan, in the wider Muslim community was huge at a time when he was India’s biggest star. In an interview he explains why he took on a stage name that was Hindi:

“My father, may Allah bless him, was really against the film industry. My father’s best friend Basheshwar Nath Kapoor’s son Prithviraj Kapoor was in the film industry and my father used to complain to Basheshwar, why is this young man doing this? When I got into the film industry I was really scared of my father, he was a pathan man and he was very strict and got angry about things very quickly and I was scared that when my father finds out he wouldn’t be happy about it. I said this to the people in the film industry and they suggested changing my name and have a stage name. They suggested three names, keep it Yusuf Khan, Basu Dev, and Dilip Kumar. I suggested to them give me whatever name you want but not Yusuf Khan, please. After a few months I saw a poster of my film, and I found out they changed it to Dilip Kumar.”

Khan was laid to rest in Mumbai on Wednesday evening.