Faisal Farooqui is the founder and CEO of India’s leading review and rating platform, Mouthshut.com. Farooqui regarded Dilip Kumar as his father-figure and they shared a close bond of more than 30 years. A passionate entrepreneur, he has co-founded two other successful tech companies and serves on the boards of several non-profit organizations and civil society groups. Farooqui is fond of mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs and advocates for the extensive role of women in tech and engineering. Farooqui’s sacrosanct belief in the freedom of expression on the Internet led him to challenge various sections of India’s IT Act in the Supreme Court. This catalysed the abrogation of Section 66A and the reading down of arbitrary IT rules. Farooqui has a degree in Information Systems and Finance from New York and lives in Mumbai, India.
The world knows Dilip Kumar as a star, an impeccable actor, and a legend. But what was his life like behind the façade of the star? In a recently launched biography called Dilip Kumar: In the Shadow of a Legend, the author Faisal Farooqui who knew Dilip Kumar for over thirty years gives the reader a fascinating glimpse of the man beyond the legend. Gleaned from the author’s many exchanges over casual evening teas, car rides and sunset walks, or late-evening silent reflections at Jogger’s Park, and even a pilgrimage to the Holy Mecca, this memoir introduces us to aspects of Dilip Sahab which are little known to the world. His biography also talks about the voracious appetite he had for books, his inquisitive and curious mind, his love for literature and poetry, his contribution to building the Jogger's park, and the foodie he was, especially his love for paani puri from Karachi sweets. Faisal in his heartwarming memoir has mentioned hilarious anecdotes from his film shoots, like the time he couldn’t run slowly enough for his first shot in cinema, or the one childhood experience that haunted him forever, the little-known Qissa Khwani Bazaar Massacre of 1930. The biography also has the many life lessons the author picked up from his innumerable conversations with the man he calls a ‘father figure in whom I found a guide’.
