Mithun Chakraborty

Once regarded as a rival of Amitabh Bachchan, Mithunda is rightly so regarded as a legend. Incredibly talented dancer and actor, Gouranga Chakraborty aka Mithun Chakraborty was born on June 16, 1947, in Kolkata.

He graduated from Scottish Church College, Kolkata , from where he earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry (B.Sc) after which he joined Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). He started his film career as late as when he was 29 years of age, in a Bengali film made by Mrinal Sen called Mrigaya.

Before Mithunda entered the film industry, he was a staunch Naxalite till his brothers died in a freak accident. On leaving the Naxalite fold Mithunda exposed himself to great risk as the Naxalite fold is a one way road (it was an unwritten law that one could not abandon the Naxalite cause once it had been embraced). This is the turning point of Mithunda’s life making him an icon! Mithunda is also well equiped in martial arts.

He is married to actress Yogita Bali and has had 6 children of her. His eldest son, Mimoh Chakraborty is following his father’s footsteps by joining the film industry. Mimoh’s debut movie is scheduled to be launched in 2007.

Mithunda is the only actor to have won a National Film Award for Best Actor in his first movie. After this he did some minor roles till he rose to fame in late 1970’s with lead roles in many Hindi films such as Suraksha (1979) , Taarana (1979), Paanch Patita (1980), Hum (1980).

His breakthrough role came in the musical drama Disco Dancer in 1983 which was a huge success at the box office. In the mid 1980s Mithun was regarded as a rival to Amitabh Bachchan due to similar genric films and characterisation; i.e that of an angry young man. Mithun has not only achieved commercial success but has also been criticaly acclaimed. His performances in Mrigaya , Tahader Katha and Ramakrishna, have been widely appreciated. He has received the coveted National Film Award for Best Actor for these three films.

He has also won the Filmfare Award for Jallad & Agneepath and has won many awards in India and abroad in the last 31 years.

During the mid 90s he shifted his focus to low-budget B-grade movies which he produced.. These movies mostly cater to the audiences of Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, where Mithun has a cult-following even today, thanks to his Bhojpuri movies.

He made a comeback to the Bollywood mainstream film industry in 2005 with the film Elaan which was not successful. After a few supporting roles in films such as Lucky: No Time for Love and Dil Diya Hai. He gave a critically acclaimed performance in Chingari which was however, not a commercial success. He recently starred in Mani Ratnam's film Guru in which he acts as an upright editor of the newspaper The Independent. By the looks of it he might be on his way to get another critical appreciation.