Jubilee Kumar: The Life and Times of a Superstar

Seema Sonik Alimchand

Known to generations of cinema lovers as the evergreen hero of long-running blockbuster hits like Dil Ek Mandir, Ayee Milan ki Bela, Arzoo and Sangam, among others,Rajendra Kumar Tuli was truly the 'Jubilee Star' of Hindi cinema in the 1960s.

A dispossessed refugee following the partition, Kumar travelled from Sialkot to Bombay to try his luck in films, suffering homelessness and hunger before he got his break in the film world. Touching candidly upon his life both on-screen and off it, this intimate account reveals Kumar – often through his own reminiscences and the recollections of others – as a hard-headed businessman, a generous and empathetic senior colleague, a gallant co-star to his female leads, a good-natured rival to peers and, above all, an upright and principled family man who rose above the many temptations that are an inevitable part of life in the Indian film industry.

A riveting tale of struggle and stardom, fame and disillusionment, love, heartbreak and loss, Jubilee Kumar unwraps the many layers of an icon whose achievements and charisma few of his rivals and successors have been able to match.