MITHUN CHAKRABORTY
MAN, MONARCH, MESSIAH

His is the proverbial footpath and rags to riches story, a self-made man if ever there was one. An actor who’s been decorated thrice with the national award, but one whose enormous talent is sadly still largely untapped. A hotelier with a great vision. A philanthropist and humanitarian who has vowed to give back every paisa he’s earned to society. And a lots more, besides. On overwhelming reader’s demand, SCREEN pays tribute to the Mithun Chakraborty dream factory...

Remember Fairdeal Restaurant & Stores on Mumbai’s well-known Linking Road, Mithun? The place where you and several other jobless struggling actors sat for hours on end over cups of steaming hot tea (with bun maska or khaari biscuits to go with it whenever you had the money, which was rare)? Today, they have razed down the hotel and in its place has come ‘Citywalk’, a sophisticated shoe shop where an ordinary pair of chappals could cost almost the entire salary of a peon in a private company. I pass by ‘Citywalk’ almost everyday and keep looking at it and I am reminded of you sitting there in that typical Iranian chair, playing with your locks for lack of something else to do, which ultimately became a habit with you.

Remember those dark and depressing days when you carried your gold medal, the National Award you had won for your performance in your very first film, Mrigaya and trooped from studio to studio, from office to office, from filmmaker to filmmaker, looking for work which just would not come, even as your frustration kept growing almost balancing on the tip of rage, the anger of a Naxalite (some very authentic stories making the rounds while you made your rounds even suggested you were a hard-core Naxalite who had run away from it all)?

Remember the journalist who asked you for an interview and you said you would speak to him only if he bought you lunch, because you had not eaten anything for two days?

Remember the days when you changed your name to Rana Rez and danced at different entertainment programmes for a few rupees, held in different parts of the city, paapi pet ke liye?

Remember the time you danced with the legendary Helen and she was so thrilled with your dance that she had predicted a great future for you?

Remember all those ordinary everyday friends who gave you a place to sleep, food to eat and sometimes even a drink at times, of tharra (country liquor)? Remember how you lived as a paying guest in so many places without so much as paying rent for months?

Remember that old South Indian woman who looked after you like a son? And so many other good souls like her?

Remember Mr Thakkar, an elderly photographer who was a specialist at clicking the stars of the early days? Do you remember how you pleaded with him to photograph you just once and how Mr Thakkar was kind enough to listen to your plea. That photograph still adorns India Photo Studio, Mr Thakkar’s studio, now being run by his son Vimal, who was one of your rich friends?

Remember how the veteran filmmaker Dulal Guha and his sons Gautam and Putul and their sister took a great liking for you and treated you like part of the family? Remember how you cried when the sister was getting married and leaving home?

Remember your first film and so many other ‘B’ and ‘C’ grade films which you did till B Subhash saw some rare sparks in your feet and made you a super-star, a super dancing star, the kind of star the industry had never seen before, with just one film, Disco Dancer? You were finally recognised as a star, a very big star. All those who looked down on you, and drove you out of their gates, looked up at you and lined up outside your house to sign their next film with you as the hero.

Amitabh Bachchan was the ruling God and you were called “the poor man’s Amitabh” and you didn’t mind because you genuinely believed that Amitabh was “the guru”, “the Bhagwan of acting”. You were in a state of endless ecstacy, elation, excitement. You were called names like “purple hero” (that was the name Raj Kapoor gave you when he considered you for a role) and other nasty names by people who couldn’t believe your strange success story but you couldn’t care less. You didn’t have the time to mind. You didn’t have the mind to mind. You had to mind and mend many more important things.

Remember the year 1986 when you were declared the highest individual tax payer in the country? It was an honour. A man who had no money for his next meal at one time had reached this formidable financial status...

That, I think, was the last good thing that happened to you in Mumbai, the city which gave you more than what you expected. What followed was something you will never like to remember but you will have to because they were shocks no ordinary man can ever forget. I remember, I vividly remember how you had twenty-two releases in one year, 1988 and all of them without a single exception were miserable flops. This was the kind of punishment God’s good man like you didn’t dream about but then you can’t question God’s plans because you never know why He is doing what He is doing. He was doing it to you because He was in a mood to change your life. And then God’s plans for Mithun Chakraborty started taking shape...

Mithun felt insecure in Mumbai. He was not sure if his career was going to take a good turn, right turn. He was surprised when a voice from within screamed Bhaag jaao, bhaag jaao, Mumbai ab tumhare liye nahin hain, Mumbai ab tumhare liye kuch nahin karegi. Mithun’s faith in the voice grew stronger and one day he decided to leave Mumbai for good. It would take time but it was time to leave Mumbai come what may. He talked to his wife, Yogeeta and she was game. She was happy. She consented to let him do what his inner voice ordered him.

Mithun took his first major step when he was shooting for Phool Aur Angaar at a height of 6760 feet above sea level in Ooty. He slowly started work on his dream hotel. He put all the money that he had into the building of his hotel. He worked harder in the films that he still had on hand. He gathered a group of faithful friends and advisers around him. He sought help from various government sources and he was surprised and grateful to see that there were people who were willing to go out of their way s to help. Mithun spent almost all his time in Ooty. He sold everything, all the property that he had in Mumbai and shifted to a small home attached to the dream hotel he was building. He himself worked like a labourer when there was need and the first few rooms of his hotel were ready within no time. Then some more rooms came up and Mithun sat and watched his glorious dream come true. There was a long way to go but Mithun was prepared to wait. Great dreams always take their own time, he knew.

Soon word about his hotel spread in Mumbai. He also made it clear to filmmakers in the city that he was willing to act in films provided their films are entirely shot in Ooty and other places in the South, any place but Mumbai. Some filmmakers reluctantly decided to take the risk. They made films with Mithun wherever he wanted. They patronised his hotel, now called ‘The Monarch’. The films they made with Mithun did well at the box-office and soon something amazing happened. Mithun was a market by himself. He formulated his own plan. He decided to work with directors without any fanfare, any nakhras. He planned films where no big money, no big risks were involved. He was responsible for an umpteen number of new girls getting their breaks as his leading ladies. According to one rough estimate Mithun is the only hero who has never objected to casting any girl as his heroine. He has worked with more than twenty-five new girls, including Madhuri Dixit.

The new Mithun formula was very simple. He was the hero. He would have his favourite directors, preferably from the South. He selected the subject, mostly a remake of one of the hits made in the South Indian languages. He packed the cast with some of the best ‘B’ and ‘C’ grade villains and character actors from Mumbai, actors who had no work and were grateful to him for getting them good roles and good money, money in time. The lyricists, the music directors from Mumbai, the dialogue writers also from Mumbai and all the other technicians from the South. A virtual Mithun Chakraborty factory of films started in Ooty. He shot two and three shifts, days and nights. He completed one batch of films during a specific time and then started another batch and the films kept coming so regularly that they baffled all those Mumbai filmmakers who were struggling and dying slow deaths working with their five or six heros who had little time to spare for them.

A whole lot of new producers, financiers and distributors sprang up to back the Mithun-brand of films because according to all their calculations every Mithun film made money. Even his biggest flops made money for everyone concerned and they were happy. All they had to do was sign Mithun and then only sign cheques and make more and more money. Mithun created a number of new producers. He made his own friend Vijay Upadhyay a producer. He inspired his make-up man for years, Siraj, to become a regular producer. He has now made his secretary for the last twenty-five years, Jawahar Kaul, a producer. He has made it a policy to help as many people in as many ways as possible. The critics and pundits are busy tearing his films to pieces but he is happy, his producers are happy, all his distributors are happy. “Just because his films don’t do well in Mumbai doesn’t mean the end of the world. Mithun’s films do very well in different places in the North. Very few of his films have proved to be losing propositions. That’s why some of the regular Mumbai producers are also wanting and waiting to make films with him. Mithun is game provided they play the game his way,” says Rajiv Babbar who started his career with Mithun and has made all his films with Mithun.

Mithun is a rare blend of monarch and messiah today. His hotel, ‘The Monarch’ employs more than three hundred local people. Mithun provides them with good salaries, good homes to stay, he looks after the education of their children, their health, especially, their children. “I want ‘The Monarch’ to do good to everyone associated with me. The progress of ‘The Monarch’ means the progress of the people who care for ‘The Monarch’. I have ambitious plans to make my hotel the best hotel in the South, even India. I am also planning to build another hotel in Coimbatore, a safari park and an entire township. I want to give back whatever I have got. My needs and my family’s needs are very simple. We live a very simple life. My sons are studying in the best boarding school in Ooty. My wife is happy with the work I have done and am still doing. I don’t know how God guided me and led me to this path, which lets me help my brothers and sisters in need too. I have spent a lot of time on a bed of thorns. I am in a better position now. I don’t know what will happen next. There is God above and a number of people around me, with me. What else do I need?, he asks.

And we must remember that Mithun the actor who has been taken for granted has won the national award thrice. He has been honoured with a Fellowship of a prestigious university. He has been honoured by some other universities too. He says he has so much still to give as an actor. But he is not happy with the system. He will never again work in Mumbai, the city that made him what he is today. There must be some serious reason he doesn’t want to reveal. If giving up Mumbai makes him happy, tathaastu, so be it.

His performance as Swami Paramhans is his crowning glory, he says. He can take up any role still but his heart is no longer in acting. He wants to finish all his work as an actor and then retire, start life all over again, aim higher in terms of success, in terms of peace, in terms of doing the maximum good to the maximum people. There is no greater joy than giving. With a man like Mithun who came to Mumbai without a ticket and reached where he has today no one can say. Such men are messiahs specially created by God. Only God knows what Mithun will do next. And God doesn’t reveal secrets. He has not revealed them to Mithun either.