Mithun Chakraborty
Mithun Chakraborty is an Indian actor, film producer and entrepreneur and politician. In a career spanning over five decades, he has done 350 films, mostly in Hindi and Bengali languages, and a few in Odia, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Punjabi. Referred to as "Mahaguru", he is a former Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament. He is the recipient of three National Film Awards and four Filmfare Awards. In January 2024, Chakraborty was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour by the Government of India. He was also awarded India's highest accolade in the field of cinema, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2022, whose announcement came from the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in September 2024.
Chakraborty made his acting debut with art house drama Mrigayaa, directed by Mrinal Sen, for which he won his first National Film Award for Best Actor. His major breakthrough role came with Bengali film Nadi Theke Sagare. Chakraborty gained greater fame with the 1982 film Disco Dancer, which was a major box office success in India and the Soviet Union. Besides Disco Dancer, Chakraborty also gained recognition for many other performances as both a lead and character artist. Chakraborty's performance in Agneepath won him the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1990.
Chakraborty owns the Monarch Group, which has interests in the hospitality and educational sectors. He also started the production house Paparatzy Productions. In 1992, he, along with Dilip Kumar and Sunil Dutt, set up a trust to help actors in need of assistance called the Cine & T.V Artistes Association. He was also the Chairperson of Film Studios Setting & Allied Mazdoor Union, which protects the welfare of cinema workers and resolves their demands and problems. The television show Dance India Dance, where Chakraborty was the Grand Master, also entered in the Limca Book of Records and the Guinness World Records. Chakraborty played a crucial mediating role between Pranab Mukherjee of the Indian National Congress and Mamata Banerjee, winning Mukherjee the support of Banerjee's party, the All India Trinamool Congress, in the 2012 Indian presidential election. He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on 7 March 2021, ahead of the 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election.
Early life and education
Mithun Chakraborty was born on 16 June 1950 into a Bengali Hindu family in Calcutta, West Bengal, India to Basanta Kumar Chakraborty and Shanti Rani Chakraborty. He studied at Oriental Seminary and then earned his B.Sc. degree in Chemistry from Scottish Church College in Kolkata. After that, he attended and graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. He was a Naxalite before entering films, but tragedy struck his family, it is widely reported that his only brother was electrocuted and killed in a freak accident whereas his sister Kalyani has confirmed to journalist Pankaj Shukla and others who reached her, that Mithun is the only son of his parents. He returned to his family and left the Naxalite fold, even though this posed a grave risk to his own life. During his days as a Naxalite, he became friends with Ravi Ranjan, a popular Naxal figure, known to his friends as "Bhaa". Bhaa was known for his manipulative skills and oratory abilities.Film career
Early career (1976–1981)
Chakraborty made his Hindi film debut in 1976 with Mrinal Sen's art-house film Mrigayaa, for which he won the National Film Award for Best Actor. That same year, he played a brief role in Dulal Guha's hit thriller Do Anjaane which had Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha and Prem Chopra in the lead.In 1978, Chakraborty made his debut in Bengali cinema with Arabinda Mukhopadhyay's romantic blockbuster Nadi Theke Sagare. He also co-starred alongside Rameshwari in Mera Rakshak. A remake of R. Thyagarajan's own directional venture Aattukara Alamelu, it performed well commercially. In 1979, Chakraborty delivered another hit with Ravikant Nagaich's spy thriller Surakksha. This was followed by a string of successful films, such as Taraana, Patita, Unees-Bees, Hum Paanch and Hum Se Badhkar Kaun and the Bengali film Kalankini Kankabati.
Stardom (1982–1995)
In 1982, Chakraborty had a string of successes with Shaukeen, Ashanti and Taqdeer Ka Badshah. He shot to stardom in the same year with B. Subhash's dance film Disco Dancer. Disco Dancer proved to be a hit domestically and an All Time Blockbuster in overseas markets. It also became the first Indian film to do a business of. Its soundtrack composed by Bappi Lahiri was a huge chartbuster and played a big role in the box office success of the film, especially in countries like Soviet Union and China. The same year, he established himself in Bengali cinema as well with Gautam Mukherjee's musical blockbuster Troyee. In 1983, he played lead roles in T. Rama Rao and Deepak Bahry's commercially successful ventures - Mujhe Insaaf Chahiye and Hum Se Hai Zamana, respectively and Basu Chatterjee's critically acclaimed light-hearted romance Pasand Apni Apni. The following year, he appeared alongside Shashi Kapoor, Moushmi Chatterjee and Ranjeeta in the family drama film Ghar Ek Mandir. At release, it was thrashed by critics, but went on to become a superhit at the box office. The huge box office success of Ghar Ek Mandir was followed by two more successes in Baazi and Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki to go with the major grosser.Chakraborty hit his peak in the mid-1980s. In 1985, he acted in Vijay Sadanah's romantic drama Pyar Jhukta Nahin, opposite Padmini Kolhapure. The film opened to excellent audience response and went on to become a blockbuster. Its soundtrack composed by Laxmikant–Pyarelal dominated the musical charts and was the tenth best-selling Hindi film album of the 1980s. He followed it with a superhit in J. P. Dutta's action drama Ghulami co-starring Dharmendra, Naseeruddin Shah, Reena Roy, Smita Patil and Anita Raj. His other major commercial success that year was another of B. Subhash's directional venture Aandhi-Toofan. Chakraborty's dream run continued in 1986 with K. Bapayya's blockbuster family drama film Swarag Se Sunder, which also had Jeetendra, Jaya Prada and Kolhapure in the lead. That same year, he found a huge hit in Umesh Mehra's actioner Jaal, followed by two more successes, Dilwaala and Muddat. Apart from box office success, he received acclaim for his performance in Basu Chatterjee's Sheesha, which was the first Hindi film centred around sexual harassment at workplace. The following year, he starred in hits, including Dance Dance, Parivaar and Watan Ke Rakhwale alongside moderately profitable films, Hawalaat and Hiraasat. In 1988, Chakraborty reunited with K. Bapayya for Pyar Ka Mandir, co-starring Madhavi, Nirupa Roy, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Raj Kiran and Shoma Anand. The film performed very well at the box office and was declared a superhit by trade pundits. He then appeared alongside Sridevi and Moushmi Chatterjee in the action drama film Waqt Ki Awaz, which too went on to become a hit, followed by moderate successes in Charnon Ki Saugandh and Jeete Hain Shaan Se. 1989 also proved to be a big one for Chakraborty with four of his films emerging commercial successes, which were - Daata, Prem Pratigyaa, Mujrim and Aakhri Ghulam.
Chakraborty began the new decade with average fares, such as Pati Patni Aur Tawaif and Humse Na Takrana, while his most notable release of 1990 was Mukul Anand's action crime film Agneepath alongside Amitabh Bachchan, which although a commercial failure, received highly positive response from critics and won him Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor. For next three years, his successful films included Pyar Ka Devta, Swarg Yahan Narak Yahan, Dil Aashna Hai, Ghar Jamai, Dalaal, Aadmi and Phool Aur Angaar.
Chakraborty's career as a matinee idol faded in the mid-1990s as he took a break from mainstream Hindi cinema and started working in low-budget productions, most of which lacked success due to their poor quality. Beginning from 1994, he starred in many such films, the majority of which performed miserably at the box office, with a few exceptions like Cheetah, Jallaad and Ravan Raaj: A True Story, which also proved to be his final hit as a lead actor.
Career fluctuations (1996–2006)
Post-stardom, Chakraborty continued to star in substandard productions which failed to propel his career forward. He appeared in hundreds of such films produced under his home banner Mithun's Dream Factory. He was unable to accept the universally acclaimed Tamil film Iruvar as his character had to crop his hair, which would have affected his other 15 films at that time. By this time, Chakraborty held the record for appearing in the most Hindi films as a hero. During this phase, he saw moderate successes in Shapath and Chandaal and won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing Ramakrishna Paramahansa in G.V. Iyer's biographical drama Swami Vivekananda.It has been reported that between 1993 and 1998 he endured 33 consecutive box-office flops. With his Bollywood career taking a backseat, Chakraborty began to focus on Bengali films in the early 2000s. From 2000 to 2003, he appeared in highly acclaimed films like Nepaldev Bhattacharjee's Chaka, Rituparno Ghosh's Titli, Prasanta Bal's Ferari Fauj and Narayan Rao's Santrash.
He returned to mainstream Hindi films in 2005 with the highly anticipated films Elaan and Lucky: No Time for Love, but contrary to expectations, both the films proved to be critical and commercial duds and failed to re-establish him.