When Dilip Kumar Broke THIS Promise to Wife Saira Banu by Marrying Asma: 'At the Time of My Nikah...'

Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu have redefined love for Bollywood. The couple, who shared an age difference of 22 years, were devoted to each other. Saira even left acting in Bollywood to surrender herself to their marriage. However, there was a brief period in their lives when their marriage hit the rocks. In his autobiography The Substance And The Shadow, Dilip Kumar confirmed that he was briefly married to Asma Rehman, 16 years after he married Saira Banu.

He revealed in his book that Saira found out about the marriage through the news reports and was hurt. After all, Dilip — in his own words — had promised to never get married for the second time when he married Saira. “In 1982, when the news spread that I had married Asma and Saira read the sensational ‘revelation’ in a tabloid, it was very painful for me to console her as she trusted me and loved me unconditionally,” he said in his book, as quoted by Rediff.

“I was not at home when Saira read the news and, truth be told, neither she nor her mother (Naseem Aapa) believed what they read because of their implicit faith in me and the sincere commitment I had given at the time of my nikah with Saira that there was no question of a second marriage and there should be no talk of it,” he added.

He said that Saira stood by him through it all, despite being hurt. “I can never forget or forgive myself for the hurt I caused to Saira and the shattering of the unshakeable faith she had in me. It needs to be said that even in that situation when a self-respecting woman cannot but hate the man who has humiliated her, my wife Saira stood by me when I admitted the grave mistake and asked her to give me some time to undo the wrong through proper legal processes and restore the sanctity of our marriage of sixteen years. I requested Saira to give me some time to sort it all out. Saira, despite the hurt caused to her pride and to her intense faith in me, stood solidly by me on the advice of Naseem Aapa and her brother Sultan Ahmed,” he said.

Dilip immediately reinstilled his promise to Saira by ‘signing a letter of commitment long before the legal processes of divorce were initiated and completed vis-a-vis Asma. Some of my close friends signed as witnesses.’ He revealed that people like Rajni Patel, his wife Bakul Patel, Sharad Pawar and Mama Kapadia stood by him during the trying time.

Dilip and Saira remained married thereafter. The veteran actor passed away on 7 July, 2021.