Sunil Dutt, who made a unique identity among the audience with his strong acting in Bollywood, served as an announcer in Radio Ceylon in the early round of his career, where he used to get 25 rupees for each interview. Sunil Dutt was born on 6 June 1929 in a village called Khurdi in Jhelum district of Punjab. This village is now in Pakistan.
Sunil Dutt’s father was Raghunath Dutt Diwan, who was also the owner of many land. His father died when Sunil Dutt was just five years old. When Sunil was 18 years old, the time of independence came and Hindu Muslim riots started taking place. Then Sunil Dutt’s mother came to Yamunanagar district of East Punjab with the whole family, which is now in Haryana. Sunil Dutt stayed in Lucknow for some time and studied here for a few years.
He then took admission in Jai Hind College, Mumbai. Along with this, he also used to work as a checking clerk at the bus depot in Mumbai, where he would get 120 rupees a month. After graduating from college, he worked in Radio Cylon. During this, Sunil Dutt used to make many programs and during that time he also interviewed Nargis. He used to get 25 rupees for each interview.
On the radio, Sunil Dutt used to host a show named ‘Lipton Ki Mahfil’. He was interviewing Dilip Kumar for the 1953 film ‘Shukti’ released for the show. Meanwhile, he met director Ramesh Sehgal and he was greatly impressed by his personality. He called Sunil Dutt for a screen test. Ramesh Sehgal proposed his next film to Sunil Dutt and promised to pay a fee of Rs 300.
Sunil Dutt became very happy after receiving the proposal of Ramesh Sehgal, but the next moment he remembered the promise given to his mother. Sunil Dutt’s mother wanted her to complete her studies first and then go to the acting world. Sunil Dutt got upset and went to Sehgal and said that due to the mother’s promise, I will not be able to do this film. Hearing this of Sunil Dutt, Sehgal was very impressed and he hugged Sunil and said, ‘First you complete your studies and then start the film’. In the year 1955, Sunil acted in Sehgal’s film Railway Platform.
From 1955 to 1957, he struggled to make his place in the film industry. He went on accepting whatever role he got after the film “Railway Platform”. During that time, he acted in many B grade films like Kundan, Rajdhani, Kismet Ka Khel and Payal but none of these films succeeded at the box office.
The star of Sunil Dutt’s fate shone with the film Mother India released in 1957. His character in this film was of anti -hero. In the early stages of career, playing the role of Anti Hero could have been risky for any new actor but he took it as a challenge and paved it to the coming generation to follow this route by playing the role of Anti hero. Among his major films with anti -hero, Jeene Do, Reshma and Shera, Heera, Pran Jay but Pran Jaye, 36 Hours, Geeta Mera Naam, Kadhi, Last Goli, Papi etc. are prominent.
Mother India played a very important role in Sunil Dutt’s cine career as well as personal life. In this film, he played the role of Nargis’s son. During the shooting of the film, Nargis was surrounded by fire and his life was in trouble. At that time, he jumped into the fire regardless of his life and brought Nargis out of the flames and brought him out.
Sunil Dutt was burnt in this accident and Nargis also affected the flames. He was admitted to the hospital for treatment and after his recovery, the two decided to get married. Sunil Dutt also stepped into the field of film production through the film “Yeh Rasta Hai Pyaar Ke” released in 1963. The first film directed in 1964 was his first film directed.
The year 1967 proved to be the most important year of Sunil Dutt’s cine career. That year, superhit films like his union, Meherban and Hamraj were screened in which new forms of his acting were seen. After the success of these films, he reached the heights of fame as an actor. In 1972, Sunil Dutt produced and directed his ambitious film “Reshma Aur Shera” but due to a weak script, the film was badly rejected at the ticket window.
In 1981, he directed the film “Rocky” to launch his son Sanjay Dutt. The film proved to be a superhit at the ticket window. After playing many roles in films, Sunil Dutt entered politics for social service and became a member of the Lok Sabha from the Congress party. In the year 1968, Sunil Dutt was awarded the Padma Shri Award. Sunil Dutt was appointed a Sheriff of Mumbai in 1982. He also showed his acting in many Punjabi films.
After the film “Kshatriya” released in 1993, Sunil Dutt played the role of Sanjay Dutt’s father in the 2003 film “Munna Bhai MBBS” released in the 2003 film. The pair of father and son was well liked by the audience. Sunil Dutt was awarded the Filmfare Award for Best Actor twice in his cine career. These include let me live 1963 and family 1965.
In the year 2005, he was awarded the Phalke Ratna Award. Sunil Dutt acted in about 100 films. Sunil Dutt, who made a special identity among the audience with his made films and acting, said goodbye to the world on 25 May 2005.
