Dilip Kumar, for his part, won not only the first Filmfare Best Actor award (for Daag in 1953) but established a near stranglehold on this prize as he bagged the citation, three years running, for Azaad (1955), Devdas (1956) and Naya Daur (1957).
Each time it was Raj Kapoor who was expected to break this striking Dilip Kumar sequence. But Dev Anand it was who actually did so, as this matinee model bagged the Filmfare Best Actor award for Navketan's Kala Pani (1958). Flanking Dev Anand in Kala Pani were two rare beauties, each carrying her own screen charisma -- Madhubala and Nalini Jaywant. A Nalini Jaywant rated by Dilip Kumar to be histrionically testing, as his Shikast (1953) heroine.
To think that Raj Kapoor came to win his first Filmfare Best Actor award as late as 1959 -- for Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Anari. Why, Ashok Kumar, even while offering keen rivalry to Raj, Dilip and Dev, had to sit back till 1962 to receive the Filmfare Best Actor prize - for A Bhimsingh's Rakhi. Shammi Kapoor, tipped here to win for Professor (1962), added immensely to his stature by proclaiming that Ashok Kumar, as a gnarled veteran, deserved the trophy ahead of him.
As for Dev Anand, he won the Filmfare Best Actor award again, of course, for Guide (1966). Even as S D Burman wanted to know from me, about where he had fallen short, for the Filmfare Best Music prize, that year (1966), to have ultimately gone, not to his Guide, but to Shanker-Jaikishan's Suraj.
Also Read: 'He was my idol then. He is now, too'
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