The struggles and successes of Mithun Chakraborty

The veteran actor, who recently joined BJP, scripted a rags to riches story in Bollywood

Even as popular film stars from the Kolkata film industry joined two main political parties in the state with regularity in the last few months, the induction of Bollywood veteran Mithun Chakraborty into BJP turned out to be an event of seismic proportions ahead of the assembly polls in the state.

The actor shared the dais with PM Narendra Modi on March 7 in Kolkata. Mithun’s political campaigns in the state in the coming weeks are expected to be high on drama and theatrics, and he is likely to be one of the biggest crowd pullers.

Mithun, born as Gouranga Chakraborty, is a fighter and believes in chasing his dreams. The actor’s rise to one of Bollywood’s top stars was filled with challenges. He had no godfather in Bombay (Mumbai now). During his initial days of struggle, he was forced to sleep on water tanks on terraces of buildings to avoid being caught by the security guard.

He graduated from Film and Television Institute of India in Pune in 1973. As luck would have it, Mrinal Sen, the enfant terrible of art-house cinema, offered him a role in ‘Mrigayaa’ (1976). Set in Bengal, Mithun plays a young tribal, Ghinua, who strikes
up a friendship with a British administrator in the 1930s. His impressive performance earned him a National Award.

Before his success in Bollywood, Mithun worked in Bengali commercial movies which did modest business at the box office. Despite talent, Mithun had to struggle a lot to land meaty roles in Hindi. It is said that filmmakers would reject him due to his skin tone. Come hell or high water, Mithun was determined to succeed.

Slowly but steadily, Mithun started working in low-budget movies like ‘Wardat’ (1981) and ‘Hum Paanch’ (1980). Finally, it was in 1982, that Mithun made the industry sit up and take notice of his hidden talent.

The movie ‘Disco Dancer’ established him as the Disco King of Bollywood. In 1985, ‘Pyaar Jhukta Nahin’ became another blockbuster.

The actor went from strength to strength and in the same year, the stupendous success of ‘Ghulami’ (1985) and ‘Pyaari Behna’ (1985) gave Mithun an enviable status as Amitabh Bachchan’s successor.

Mithun acted with Amitabh in ‘Ganga Jamuna Saraswati’ (1988) and in ‘Agneepath’ (1989). In ‘Agneepath’, despite Amitabh’s presence, Mithun held his own as Krishnan Iyer MA. He earned wide-spread appreciation from fans.

On the flip side, his memorable performances notwithstanding, films like ‘Mujrim’ (1989), ‘Prem Pratigya’ (1989) and ‘Jallad’ (1995), bombed at the box office. Many believe that Mithun’s talent was never fully explored by filmmakers. In fact, towards the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mithun acted in mostly mediocre and B-grade movies.

As a big comeback, in 1992, Mithun won the another National Award for the Bengali film ‘Tahader Katha’ directed by Buddhadev Dasgupta. He delivered a jaw-dropping performance as a freedom-fighter.

Mithun’s never-say-die spirit has always helped him cross many hurdles. Though movies have been his priority, he is also a successful businessman. After his brief stint in Mamata Banerjee’s TMC as a Rajya Sabha nominee, Mithun’s decision to join BJP, according to him, has been necessitated by his zeal to serve the interests of the party.

(The writer is a senior journalist based in New Delhi)