Evergreen actor Dev Anand turned 88 on Monday.

"Thanks to all of you for your love and all the beautiful birthday wishes. I am deeply touched, " tweeted Dev Anand on Monday as fans and friends greeted him on the micro-blogging site.

Asked about his birthday plans, Dev Anand said he will have a meeting with Warner Brothers, producers of his latest film 'Chargesheet' in the morning, while his friends will join him for a dinner party in the evening.

As for a birthday gift, the veteran actor-filmmaker has presented himself an iPhone.

Dharam Dev Anand was born on 26 September, 1923 at Shakargarh Tehsil of Gurudaspur district (now in Narowal District, Pakistan) in undivided Punjab.

Dev is the second of three brothers (other two-Chetan Anand and Vijay Anand) who were active in Hindi cinema.

The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 2001 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2002 for his contributions towards Indian cinema.

Dev was offered his first big break by Ashok Kumar.

He spotted Dev hanging around in the studios and picked him as the hero for the Bombay Talkies production, Ziddi, costarring Kamini Kaushal (1948) which became an instant success.

After Ziddi's success Dev had decided that he would start producing films. So in 1949, Dev turned producer and launched his own company Navketan, which till 2011 has produced 31 films and continues to produce movies even today.

A rapid-fire style of dialogue delivery and a penchant for nodding while speaking became Dev's style in films like House No. 44, Pocket Maar, Munimji, Funtoosh, C.I.D. and Paying Guest.

The presence of his 'discoveries' in the 70's— the Zeenat and later, the Tina Munim in films and his good chemistry with beautiful young stars like Rakhee, Parveen Babi, Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman in various films boosted Dev's image as the evergreen star even though he was well into his fifties.

Dev Anand is credited with giving actors like Jackie Shroff in Swami Dada, Tabu in Hum Naujawan and Richa Sharma a break into the film industry and encouraging music composer Rajesh Roshan.

Dev Anand has directed 19 films and produced 31 films of which 7 directorial ventures and 18 films respectively were commercially successful at the box office. He wrote the story for 13 of his films. Critics say his directorial ventures have always been ahead of its time.