Utpal Dutt

Utpal Dutt Biography

Utpal Dutt is a versatile actor, script writer and director of Indian cinema. Though he has given contributions to Bollywood, he was most concentrated on Bengali Movies. Among the Bollywood movies, his role in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Golmaal of 1979 is remembered most. His body language and dialogue delivery placed Golmaal among the best classic comedy movies ever made in Indian screen. Bhawani Shankar is still loved by millions. He has spent about 40 years in Indian cinema and has done more than 100 movies collectively. His best Bengali movies list include Bhuvam Shome in 1969, the movie for which he won best actor National award, Agantuk in 1991 directed by Satyajit Ray and Padma nadir muji. His Hindi comic flick Rang Birang directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee was also a hit movie. Apart from best actor National award, he has won Filmfare awards for comedy actor three times.

Utpal Dutt was born in west Bengal in the year 1929. As a teenager, he was involved with theatre – both Bengali and English. He established English theatre 'The Shakespeareans', in 1947. Its success made him tour all over India and Pakistan, doing Shakespeare dramas. While he was performing live for Othello, famous filmmaker Madhu Bose happened to watch him and offered him a role in Michael Madhusudan (1950) as hero. Thus began the magical journey of this talented actor in Bengali movies. His best movies’ list include - Ek Adhuri Kahani and Choru, Jukti Takko Aar Gappo, Padma Nadir Najhi, Ajan Thuk and Joy baba phelunath. He was the favourite of great Bengali directors like Satyajith Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen.  

Later he did many comic movies in Hindi too. Despite being a serious actor he concentrated on comic roles in Bollywood. Golmaal, Shaukeen, Rang birang, Guddi and Naran garam are best examples. He did serious roles in Barsaat ki raat, Saat Hindusthani and Amanush and villain’s role in ‘The great gambler’ and ‘Inquilaab’. Thus he has acted in different shades in many Amitabh movies’ thus proving his versatility. He was one among those great actors who kept both filmy life and theatre life hand in hand. Perhaps, the great lessons he learnt through theatre experiment made his filmy journey more easy and fruitful. He was married to theatre actress Sobha Sen who was 6 years older than him. 

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Updated: May 13, 2014