When Dilip Kumar 'Auditioned' Zakir Hussain For Young Salim's Role In Mughal-e-Azam

Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain died at a San Francisco hospital on Monday due to complications arising from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease. He was 73. The percussionist, composer and actor left a lasting legacy in music in his wake but many will not know that Hussain could have been a full-time actor if the stars willed. However, his father and mentor Alla Rakha intervened and made sure he followed in his footsteps to become a Tabla player.

How Zakir Hussain 'auditioned' for Mughal-e-Azam

Zakir Hussain was seven when he performed in public for the first time. It was around the same time that he met director K Asif on the sets of Mughal-e-Azam for what was almost an audition for the role of the young Prince Salim. Hussain recalled in Nasreen Munni Kabir's book Zakir Hussain: A Life in Music how he first met K Asif on set when he was busy building the Sheesh Mahal set for the song Jab pyaar kiya toh darna kya.

"I met Dilip Kumar Sahib there. He looked at me, cupped his hands around my face and lifted my chin so that he could take a closer look. He turned to Shaukat and said: 'Asif ke paas le jaana' [Take him to Asif]. So that was that," reads the book.

An informal audition was turned down by Alla Rakha

"It was hardly a real audition. I don't think there were proper auditions in those days. Someone just looked at an aspiring actor and said: 'Isko le lete hain' [Let's take him]. No one used to ask the actor to read lines or anything like that," Hussain recalled about the incident with Dilip Kumar on the set of Mughal-e-Azam.

Before Asif could say anything, Alla Rakha had a change of heart and said, "Nahin, yeh actor nahin banega, yeh music karega. musician hoga," Hussain shared in the book. The young Salim was ultimately played by actor Jalal Agha in the film that released in 1960 and is considered an all-time classic. Hussain acted in the Merchant Ivory film production Heat and Dust, The Perfect Murder, Saaz and Monkey Man later on in his career.

(With inputs from PTI)