Sunil Dutt

Sunil Dutt was born on 6 June 1929.[4] in Punjab Province, British India (now in Punjab, Pakistan).[1][2] When he was five years old, Dutt's father, Diwan Raghunath Dutt, died. When he was 18, the Partition of India began inciting Hindu-Muslim violence across the country. A Muslim named Yakub, who had been friend with Dutt's father, saved their entire family.[5] The family resettled in the small village of Mandauli on the bank of the river Yamuna located in Yamuna Nagar, Punjab, which is now a district of Haryana. Later he moved to Lucknow with his mother, Kulwantidevi Dutt, and spent a long time in Aminabad Galli during graduation. He then moved to Bombay (present-day Mumbai), where he joined Jai Hind College as an undergraduate and took up a job at the city's BEST Transportation Engineering division.[6]

Starting out in radio, with his command over the Urdu language, Sunil Dutt was hugely popular on the Hindi service of Radio Ceylon, the oldest radio station in South Asia. He moved to acting in Hindi films and got introduced to the industry with 1955's Railway Platform.

He shot to stardom in the 1957 film Mother India in which he co-starred with Nargis as her short-tempered, angry son. During the making of this film a fire happened on the set. It is believed that Dutt braved the raging fire to save Nargis and thereby won her love. They went on to marry in 1958. They had one son Sanjay Dutt, also a successful film actor and two daughters, Priya Dutt and Namrata Dutt. His daughter Namrata married Kumar Gaurav, son of Rajendra Kumar. The two fathers were co-stars in Mother India.

Dutt was one of the major stars of Hindi cinema in the late 1950s and 1960s and continued to star in many successful films which included Sadhna (1958), Sujata (1959), Mujhe Jeene Do (1963), Khandan (1965) and Padosan (1967). His collaboration with B.R. Chopra proved to be successful in films such as Gumraah (1963), Waqt (1965) and Hamraaz (1967). One of his favourite writers and friends was Aghajani Kashmeri. Dutt created a record of sorts by directing and starring in the unique film Yaadein (1964) in which he was the only actor in the cast. He later turned producer of the 1968 film Man Ka Meet which introduced his brother Som Dutt who was unsuccessful in films. In 1971, he produced, directed and starred in Reshma Aur Shera (1971) which was a huge failure at the box office. He continued to star in hits that included Heera (1973), Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaye (1974), Nagin (1976), Jaani Dushman (1979), Muqabla (1979), and Shaan (1980). He also starred in a series of Punjabi religious movies in the 1970s: Man Jeete Jag Jeet (1973), Dukh Bhanjan Tera Naam (1974), and Sat Sri Akal (1977).[7] Even in 1980s he starred in a both leading and supporting role in several successful movies such as Dard Ka Rishta (1982), Badle Ki Aag (1982), Raaj Tilak (1984), Mangal Dada (1986), Watan Ke Rakhwale (1987) and Dharamyudh(1988).

He launched his son Sanjay's career with Rocky in 1981 which was a success. Shortly before the film's release, Nargis died of pancreatic cancer. He founded the Nargis Dutt Foundation in her memory for the curing of cancer patients.[8] He was a sponsor of the India Project, an organisation akin to Operation Smile for the treatment of Indian children with facial deformities.[9]

In 1982 he was appointed as the Sheriff of Bombay, an apolitical titular position bestowed on him by the Maharashtra government for a year.[10]

He retired from the film industry in the early 1990s to turn to politics after his last few releases including Yash Chopra's Parampara (1992) and J.P. Dutta's Kshatriya (1993). 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 protection of his family after bomb blasts in Bombay.[11]

In 1995 he won the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the film industry for four decades. He returned to acting shortly before his death in 2003's Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. in which he shared the screen with son Sanjay for the first time although they had appeared earlier in Rocky and Kshatriya but not in the same scenes together.

Sunil Dutt assumes the charge of the Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports in New Delhi on 25 May 2004

Sunil Dutt died of a heart attack on 25 May 2005 at his residence in Bandra, Mumbai, twelve days before his 76th birthday,[12] At the time of his death, he was the Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports in the Union Government led by Dr. 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.

Paresh Rawal played the role of Sunil Dutt in the biopic on his son titled Sanju.[13]

• 1963 – Filmfare Best Actor Award for Mujhe Jeene Do
• 1964 – National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi for Yaadein
• 1965 – Filmfare Best Actor Award for Khandan
• 1967 – BFJA Awards for Best Actor (Hindi) for Milan[14]
• 1968 – Padma Shri
• 1982 – Sheriff of Bombay
• 1995 – Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award
• 1999 – Screen Lifetime Achievement Award[15]
• 1998 – Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award[16]
• 2000 – Lifetime Achievement Award at the Anandalok Awards
• 2001 – Zee Cine Award for Lifetime Achievement
• Dutt was a recipient of the Glory of India Award by IIFS, London.[17]

As an Actor

• Radio Ceylon
• List of Hindi broadcasters of Radio Ceylon

• Mr. and Mrs. Dutt: Memories of our Parents, Namrata Dutt Kumar and Priya Dutt, 2007, Roli Books. ISBN 978-81-7436-455-5.[18]
• Darlingji: The True Love Story of Nargis and Sunil Dutt, Kishwar Desai. 2007, Harper Collins. ISBN 978-81-7223-697-7.

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• Sunil Dutt on IMDb
• Sunil Dutt at the Encyclopædia Britannica