Sunil Dutt (born Balraj Raghunath Dutt; 6 June 1929 – 25 May 2005) was an Indian actor, film producer, director and politician. Dutt was honoured with Padma Shri, in 1968, by the Government of India, for his contribution to Indian cinema.[2][3]
Dutt debuted in 1955 with the Hindi film Railway Platform.[4] He rose to prominence with highly successful and acclaimed films, such as Ek Hi Raasta (1956) and Mother India (1957) and went on to deliver a number of hugely popular films in a career that spanned 48 years.[5][6]
Dutt belonged to a family of landlords.[13] When he was five years old, Dutt's father died. When he was 18, the Partition of India began inciting Hindu-Muslim violence across the country.[13] A Muslim friend of Dutt's father named Yakub, saved their entire family.[14] The family resettled in the small village of Mandauli on the bank of the river Yamuna, located in the Yamunanagar District of East Punjab (now in Haryana).
Director Ramesh Saigal was instrumental in giving Dutt a break in the film Railway Platform (1955) when the latter was hosting the show, Lipton Ki Mehfil on Radio Ceylon.[17] While covering the Dilip Kumar film Shikast in 1953, Dutt met director Saigal, who impressed by his personality and voice, offered him a role in his upcoming film. Saigal came up with the new screen name "Sunil Dutt" for the debutante actor whose real name was Balraj Dutt to avoid name conflicts with the then veteran actor Balraj Sahni.[18][19]
He shot to stardom with B.R. Chopra's family dramaEk Hi Raasta (1956) and Mehboob Khan's epic dramaMother India (1957).[20][21][22] While Ek Hi Raasta was a superhit, Mother India went many steps ahead and emerged an All Time Blockbuster along with being the most successful film of the 1950s.[23][24] It was dubbed in several European languages including Spanish, French and Russian; it did substantial business in Greece, Spain and Russia and was released in the Eastern Bloc countries.[25] Technicolor arranged one screening of the film in Paris on 30 June 1958, under the name Les bracelets d'or ("The Gold Bracelets").[25] It did minimal business in Paris, but fared better in French colonies. It was successful in the Latin American countries of Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador.[25]Mother India was also acclaimed across the Arab world, in the Middle East, parts of Southeast Asia, and North Africa and continued to be shown in countries such as Algeria at least ten years after its release.[26][25][27][28] It went on to win several accolades and was also featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.[29][30]
Widespread success, setback and resurgence (1958–1979)
Dutt reached his peak in the mid-1960s.[20] He began 1965 with Yash Chopra's ensemble masala filmWaqt.[42] It opened to an excellent response from the audience and proved to be a major blockbuster as well as the highest grossing film of the year.[43] Today it is widely regarded as a cult classic.[44] His next release was A. Bhimsingh's family dramaKhandan which also performed very well and emerged a superhit with Dutt receiving immense acclaim for his portrayal of a dedicated family man and winning his second and final Filmfare Award for Best Actor.[45] In 1966, he had a blockbuster in Raj Khosla's thriller filmMera Saaya and a flop in Lekh Tandon's historical dramaAmrapali.[46][47] The soundtrack of Mera Saaya composed by Madan Mohan was highly successful and one of the best-selling Hindi film albums of the 1960s.[48] Its songs, such as "Jhumka Gira Re" sung by Asha Bhosle and "Mera Saaya Saath", a solo by Lata Mangeshkar remain popular till date.[49] 1967 proved to be the best year of Dutt's career with three major commercial successes.[20] He first starred in Adurthi Subba Rao's reincarnation dramaMilan.[50] A remake Of Telugu hit Mooga Manasulu (1964), Milan proved to be an equally successful venture at the box office with its songs "Sawan Ka Mahina", "Bol Gori Bol Tera Kaun Piya" and "Ram Kare Aisa Ho Jaye" topping the musical chart that year.[51] For portraying an innocent boatman in the film, Dutt received a nomination in the Filmfare Award for Best Actor category and won his first and only BFJA Award for Best Actor (Hindi).[51] His next release was Bhimsingh's drama film Mehrban which also had Ashok Kumar, Nutan, Mehmood, Sulochana Latkar and Shashikala in the lead.[52]Mehrban like Milan was also a commercially hit venture.[36] He concluded the year with B.R. Chopra's suspense thrillerHamraaz which received positive reviews from critics, eventually emerging a blockbuster and Dutt's third consecutive hit of the year.[53][54]
In 1968, he delivered another superhit in Jyoti Swaroop's musical comedy film Padosan.[55] Indiatimes ranked the film among the "Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films". Amit Upadhaya of ThePrint in a retrospective article on film's 50th anniversary wrote ″As cult comedy films go, Jyoti Swaroop’s Padosan is one of the few in Hindi film history to never run out of laughs. With its bare-bones plot about an innocent naïve young man Bhola, who falls in love with his dancer-singer neighbour Bindu and wins her over in a not-so-honest but oh-so-charming way, the focus in Padosan is entirely on scene mechanics and individual performances.[56] In a similar fiftieth-anniversary article, Devansh Sharma of Firstpost gave credit to RD Burman's soundtrack for changing the state of comedy genre in Hindi films as he felt that ″Burman's music gave wings to the camera that was otherwise doomed to sit still. Krishan's poetry also allowed the editor and director a lot of freedom as they could choose the appropriate shot for every emotion expressed in the songs.″[57]
The year 1969 saw the rise of superstar Rajesh Khanna, who stormed the nation with Aradhana and Do Raaste.[58] With his emergence, a number of stars saw a decline in their career graph and Dutt was one of them.[59] That year Dutt only saw moderate success with Raj Khosla's Chirag while the rest of his films didnt do well.[60] The series of failures continued from 1970 to 1972 with films, including Reshma Aur Shera (which he also directed), Zindagi Zindagi, Zameen Aasmaan and Jai Jwala.[6]
The year 1973 marked Dutt's return to the big league with Sultan Ahmed's dacoit drama Heera, which proved to be a massive hit.[61] The huge box office success of Heera was followed by superhits, Pran Jaye Per Vachan Na Jaye (1974) and Zakhmee (1975) alongwith two more successful films, Geeta Mera Naam (1974) and Umar Qaid (1975) thus solidifying his comeback.[62][63]
In 1978, Dutt donned the director's hat for Daaku Aur Jawan, co-starring Vinod Khanna, Reena Roy and Leena Chandavarkar.[68] The film opened to positive response from critics and emerged a superhit at the box office.[69] He also appeared opposite Rekha and Saira Banu in Ram Kasam and Kaala Aadmi, respectively. While the former was a commercially successful venture, Kaala Aadmi failed to do well.[69] In 1979, he reunited with Rajkumar Kohli for another multi-starrer horror film Jaani Dushman, which took a bumper opening and emerged a blockbuster as well as one of the highest-earners of that year.[70] Dutt once again collaborated with Kohli for Muqabla, the same year.[71] The film backed up with chartbuster song "Govinda Govinda", a duet by Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar went on to become a hit at the box office.[72][70] He concluded the year with another critical and commercial success in the action drama film Ahinsa.[70]
Shift to character roles, hiatus and final works (1980–2003)
Dutt began the new decade with a pivotal supporting role in Ramesh Sippy's mega-budget action crime drama Shaan (1980).[73] The film received positive reviews from critics and did well at the box-office, but ended up as an average fare due to its high costs.[74]
After appearing in Dharamyudh (1988), he went on a brief hiatus and returned to big screen in 1991 with Yeh Aag Kab Bujhegi (which he also directed), Kurbaan and Pratigyabadh. While the lattermost was a box office failure, Yeh Aag Kab Bujhegi proved to be a moderately successful venture and Kurbaan emerged a hit.[84] He followed it with another successful film Virodhi (1992) and three more ventures in 1993 which were - Parampara, Phool and Kshatriya before taking retirement from films to focus on his political career.[85]
Dutt returned to films once again in 2003 with Rajkumar Hirani's satirical comedy dramaMunna Bhai M.B.B.S. which had his son in the lead.[86]Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. opened to highly positive reviews from critics and proved to be a commercially hit venture.[87] Today it is considered a classic and one of the best films ever made in the history of Indian cinema.[88][89] It was Sunil Dutt's last film; he died shortly after its release.[90]
In 1987 when Punjab was facing heightened militancy, Dutt, accompanied by his daughter Priya undertook a 2,000 km 76 day long Mahashanti Padyatra (journey by foot) from Bombay to Amritsar (Golden Temple) to establish communal harmony and brotherhood.[93][94][95] During the padyatra, he attended more than 500 roadside meetings and suffered a bout of jaundice.[96]
His political career was halted for some years in the early 1990s when he worked to free his son from jail after he was arrested for keeping an AK-56 that he claimed was for the protection of his family after bomb blasts in Bombay.[97]
Personal life
Dutt married actress Nargis, a Muslim, also of PunjabiMohyal descent, on 11 March 1958. Prior to their marriage, Nargis converted to Hinduism and adopted the name Nirmala Dutt.[98][99] Reportedly, Dutt had saved her life from a fire on the sets of Mother India.[100] They had three children: Sanjay Dutt, Namrata Dutt, and Priya Dutt. Sanjay went on to become a successful film actor. Namrata married actor Kumar Gaurav, son of veteran actor Rajendra Kumar who had appeared alongside Nargis and Dutt in Mother India. Priya became a politician and a Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha).[100]
With his wife, Dutt formed the Ajanta Arts Cultural Troupe, which involved several leading actors and singers of the time, and performed at remote frontiers to entertain the Indian soldiers at border. It was the first troupe to perform in Dhaka, after the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971.[101]
Dutt at an event on 25 May 2004 (one year before his death)
Dutt died of a heart attack on 25 May 2005 at his residence in Bandra, West Mumbai, at age 75.[103] At the time of his death, he was the Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports in the Union Government led by Manmohan Singh and was the Member of Parliament from North-West Mumbai. He was cremated with full state honours at Santacruz Crematorium in Mumbai. He was succeeded as Minister by Mani Shankar Aiyar. His seat in the Parliament was contested by his daughter, Priya Dutt, who won it and was a Member of Parliament until May 2014.[104]
One of the most successful actors of the 1960s and 1970s, Dutt appeared in Box Office India's "Top Actors" list two times in 1966 and 1967.[20]
In 2022, Dutt was placed in Outlook India's "75 Best Bollywood Actors" list.[117]
In popular culture
In 2007, Dutt's daughters Priya and Namrata published a book about the lives of their parents, titled, Mr. and Mrs. Dutt: Memories of our Parents.[118][119][120] Also that year, Darlingji: The True Love Story of Nargis and Sunil Dutt was released by Kishwar Desai.[121][122]
^Heide, William Van der (2002). Malaysian Cinema, Asian Film: Border Crossings and National Cultures. Amsterdam University Press. p. 237. ISBN978-90-5356-580-3.
^Gopal, Sangita; Moorti, Sujata (16 June 2008). Global Bollywood: Travels of Hindi Song and Dance. University of Minnesota Press. p. 28. ISBN978-0-8166-4579-4.
^Mishra, Vijay (2002). Bollywood Cinema: Temples of Desire. Routledge. p. 66. ISBN978-0-415-93015-4.
^Bhumika K. "An experiment with peace". Online Edition of The Hindu, dated 2005-08-05. 2005. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 4 July 2007.
