You changed your name from Harikishan Giri Goswami to Manoj Kumar, as you were a huge fan of Dilip Kumar.
When I was a child, I watched Jugnu starring Dilip Kumar and Noorjahan. In the film, the actor dies. After a month, I watched Shaheed starring Dilip Kumar again. In this film too, the actor dies. Outside the cinema hall, I pointed to a poster and told my mother that it was ‘Suraj’ who had died in the film. She told me this was the actor Dilip Kumar. I did not understand. I went and asked my grandmother how many times does a man die. Only once, she explained. I asked her whether a man lives again, to which she replied, he must be a farishta. At that tender age, I wanted to be a farishta. After I saw Shabnam, I decided to become an actor and call myself Manoj, which was Dilip Kumar’s name in the film.

Manoj Kumar