The line “Mera tijarati naam [professional name] Dilip Kumar hai” — “My professional name is Dilip Kumar” — is the telling moment in Anwar Abbas’s personal recollection of the actor. Published by Scroll on December 11, 2020, Abbas’s tribute presents the words as a reply during a late-night phone call, and reflects on the affectionate relationship his family had with Kumar. It is a personal memory, not an autobiography or a formal interview transcript.
What the title’s line means
In the Scroll article’s search-result text, Abbas recalls speaking with Kumar by phone late at night. Asked or prompted about his name, Kumar replied: “Mera tijarati naam [professional name] Dilip Kumar hai.” The bracketed English gloss appears in the result; the title renders the line as “My professional name is Dilip Kumar.” The available wording supports attributing the recollection to Abbas’s article, rather than treating it as an independently verified transcript.
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The phrase makes a distinction between a person’s name and a public, professional identity. Kumar was born Yusuf Khan and became known to cinema audiences as Dilip Kumar. Abbas’s title turns that distinction into the story’s focus: not a survey of the actor’s career, but a remembered exchange about the name through which he was known.
Who was Dilip Kumar?
Dilip Kumar was one of Hindi cinema’s major actors. The Scroll tribute frames his life across places and audiences: born in Peshawar, famous in Mumbai, and beloved across the subcontinent. It identifies him as Yusuf Khan, also known as Dilip Kumar, while keeping the emphasis on Abbas’s own connection with him and the warmth of the recollection.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesThat framing matters. The article is not a comprehensive biography, nor does its title phrase by itself explain every aspect of Kumar’s choice or use of a professional name. Its value is narrower and more personal: it preserves how Abbas remembers Kumar describing the name under which the public knew him.
Where to read more about Kumar
For Kumar’s first-person account
Dilip Kumar: The Substance and the Shadow is Kumar’s autobiography. Penguin Random House lists the Hay House India edition as 450 pages, published July 28, 2014. It offers a first-person account of his life, career, and relationships, including his meeting with Devika Rani. It is the natural next choice for readers who want Kumar’s account rather than Abbas’s specific phone-call recollection.
For discussion of his screen work
The Man Who Became Cinema by Ashok Chopra takes a different approach. Penguin Random House India lists it as a 480-page hardback published in May 2025 by Ebury Press, describing film-by-film, scene-by-scene, and song-by-song analysis of Kumar’s performances and collaborators. The publisher’s listed ₹799 MRP is catalog information, not a guaranteed current price; availability and price can vary by region and seller.
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Neither book should be confused with the source of Abbas’s late-night phone-call memory. The memoir is Kumar’s own account; Chopra’s book is a later analysis of his films; Abbas’s Scroll piece is a personal tribute.
How the autobiography came together
In a June 8, 2014 India Today report, Priyanka Srivastava described biographer Udayatara Nayar’s work on the autobiography. Nayar said she spoke informally with Kumar in 2004 after he declined a formal interview, then spent a year recording his thoughts. The report also says Saira Banu wanted an official biography because she regarded earlier unofficial accounts as unreliable; that is her position as reported, not a judgment this article can independently extend to every prior account.
The report quotes Kumar saying, “Acting is all about not acting.” That remark offers a glimpse of his thinking about performance, but it belongs to the India Today coverage of the autobiography, not to Abbas’s phone-call recollection.
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