Utpal Dutt View Biography 190 Views

He was an actor, theatre personality, playwright, debater, director, in fact it is difficult to label him in any one or two roles. He mastered it all.

A graduate of University of Kolkata, he made his mark during his college days at St Xavier’s College, Kolkata as one of the top debaters and then he moved over to the English stage. Starting with Ricahrd III, he went on to produce, write, direct and act in numerous plays in English and Bengali, many of which are considered landmarks in Indian Theatre. He also acted in over 100 films, English, Hindi, Bengali. Due to his political beliefs, he has been put in jail and many of his plays were banned. One of the founders of IPTA, Dutt has been cast by Ray, Sen, Ghatak, Gautam Ghosh and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. He also directed a number of films, though none of them attained great Box Office success.

His major films in Hindi, particularly the comedies which made him immortal in the minds of the Hindi film audience, like Gol Maal, Naram Garam and Rang Birangi will continue to keep him alive down generations.

His portrayal of Bhavani Shankar is considered iconic even today.

Talking of films, Dutt had played a key role in many landmark films like K A Abbas’ Saat Hindutani (which was Amitava Bacchan’s debut film), Mrinal Sen’s Bhuvan Shome, Gautam Ghosh’s Paar and James Ivory’s Shakespearewallah to name a few..

He believed in carrying his theatre to the masses rather than asking the masses to come to his plays. He also was involved in the Jatra form of theatre. He even taught English at Kolkata’s South Point School in the early fifties.

He won the 1990 Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship for lifetime contribution to theatre and National Award for the Best Actor for Bhuvan Shome. The Filmfare award for Best Comedian was won by him in 1980, 1982 and 1987.