Whenever Dilip Kumar arrived on the sets, the atmosphere on it would change at once. Such was his personality. Once, he reached on a grim note to shoot a tragedy narrative, and everybody present on the sets also became serious. It was like attending a funeral. Just then, someone cracked a joke and a few others laughed, and Dilip Kumar saw it. That was it. The actor declared he couldn't do justice to the tragic scene in such a jovial environment, cancelled the shoot, and returned home. This is an incident recorded in veteran Bollywood media person Jivraj Burman's private notes. Here are some more gleanings from the journalist's diary:

1. Once, during a single shot of hurling a glass of liquor in anger, Dilip Kumar insisted on 27 retakes before he was satisfied that it was 'perfect'.