[9][10] The huge box office success of Mother India was followed by another blockbuster in S. S. Vasan's social drama film Paigham (1959), which had Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala in the lead.

[11] Kumar received praise for his performance of a caring elder brother and got a nomination in the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor category.

[13] The film proved to be a box office superhit with one of its song "Ajeeb Dastan Hai Yeh" sung by Lata Mangeshkar becoming a chartbuster.

[15] A remake of Telugu blockbuster Shanthi Nivasam, the film proved to be equally successful in Hindi and emerged a superhit at the box office.

[16] After an absence lasting a year, he reunited with Rajendra Kumar and Meena Kumari for C. V. Sridhar's romantic drama Dil Ek Mandir.

[17] It opened to highly positive response from audience and went on to become a superhit with Kumar receiving Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the film.

[21] After many years of doing second leads, Raaj Kumar became a saleable star in 1965 with Yash Chopra's ensemble masala film Waqt and Ram Maheshwari's romantic drama Kaajal, both of which opened to massive response from audience and went on to become blockbusters.

[32] He also reunited with C. V. Sridhar (the director of Dil Ek Mandir) for the multi-starrer social drama Nai Roshni, but contrary to expectations, it flopped critically and commercially.

[33][34] While the former co-starring Jeetendra and Mala Sinha did moderately well, the latter alongside Manoj Kumar and Waheeda Rehman was a superhit and one of the top five highest grossing films of 1968.

[35] For portraying a soul longing for his lost love in Neel Kamal, Kumar received his fifth and final nomination in the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor category.

[40][41] While, Lal Patthar in which he got paired with Hema Malini was an average fare, Maryada opposite Mala Sinha and co-starring Rajesh Khanna proved to be a superhit.

[47] In 1978, Kumar reunited with Jeetendra and Mala Sinha for Ram Maheshwari's action drama film Karmayogi in which he played a double role.

[53] This was followed by a series of critical and commercial duds in Ek Nai Paheli (1984), Sharara (1984), Raaj Tilak (1984), Itihaas (1987), Muqaddar Ka Faisla (1987), Mohabbat Ke Dushman (1988), Saazish (1988), Mahaveera (1988) and Jungbaaz (1989).