Mithun Chakraborty

Chakraborty made his Bollywood debut with Mrinal Sen's National Award winning film Mrigayaa (1976), for which he won the National Film Award for Best Actor.[7] After playing a few minor roles in films such as Do Anjaane (1976) and Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan (1978), his first major successful film was the 1978 film Mera Rakshak.[24] During those days Chakraborty was supported by his Nadi Theke Sagare co-star Debashree Roy.[25] He rose to stardom with the low budget spy film Surakshaa (1979), directed by Ravikant Nagaich.[20] The film was so successful that many movies starring Chakraborty in the lead were launched. His combination with Deepak Bahry also happened for the first time in 1979 with Tarana and they would go on to collaborate on many hit films together in the 1980s such as Humse Badhkar Kaun, Hum Se Hai Zamana and Woh Jo Hasina. Another important film for Chakraborty in the late 1970s was Prem Vivah, directed by Basu Chatterjee.

Chakraborty made an impact on Hindi cinema in the 1980s with the "brand of impossible heroics and made-for-the-front-row lines."[26] He starred in over 110 releases in this decade in several films of various genres such as action, family drama, romance and comedy.[7] Chakraborty played Bheema in the super-hit multi-starrer Hum Paanch (1980).[27] He played dual roles for the first time in Taxi Chor (1980) and later played dual roles in 19 films.

In 1982, he shot to superstardom with his most recognisable leading role in the musical Disco Dancer, which extended Chakraborty's popularity across India and into Russia[7] and established him as a dancing star.[28] The film's director Babbar Subhash teamed up with Chakraborty again with the cult musical films Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki (1984), Dance Dance (1987) and Commando (1988) which were also successful. His 1985 superhit movie Pyar Jhukta Nahin reconfirmed his top star status. That same year, he was also appreciated for his role as Javar in the JP Dutta film, Ghulami. Chakraborty also became India's highest tax payer in 1986.[29] Chakraborty's most successful family dramas included Mujhe Insaaf Chahiye (1983), Ghar Ek Mandir (1984), Swarag Se Sunder (1986) and Pyaar Ka Mandir (1988). His comedies included Shaukeen (1982) Pasand Apni Apni (1983) and Baat Ban Jaye (1986) and action films such as Jagir (1984), Jaal (1986), Dilwala (1986), Muddat (1986), Watan Ke Rakhwale (1987), Jeete Hain Shaan Se (1988), Waqt Ki Awaz (1988), Ilaaka (1989), Daata (1989) and Guru (1989). These films remain his most commercially successful films to date.[30] His performances never won any award in 1986 and 1987 as the Filmfare Awards were never announced due to technical reasons. As Chakraborty always had a high number of releases, sometimes it affected the business of his own films, as happened in 1989, where he had a record 19 films, including super hits like Ilaaka, Mujrim, Prem Pratigya and Daata, and hits like Ladaai, Guru and Bees Saal Baad.

He made his debut in Bengali cinema with Arabinda Mukhopadhyay's Nadi Theke Sagare (1978) which was a major success at box office.[31][32][33] In the 1980s he shot three blockbusters — Kalankini Kankabati (1981) directed by Uttam Kumar, Troyee (1982) by Goutam Mukherjee and Anyay Abichar (1985) by Shakti Samanta.

Mithun at the premiere of a Bengali film Shukno Lanka

Chakraborty had another 100 plus releases in this decade too,[7] starting with Agneepath, which won him the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor. Films such as Shandaar, Gunahon Ka Devta, Pyar Ka Devta, Trinetra and Mere Sajana Saath Nibhana followed. In 1992, the critically acclaimed Bengali film Tahader Katha won him his second National Film Award for Best Actor.[7] In this period he decided to take a break from Mumbai. He shifted his entire family to Ooty and he constructed The Monarch Hotel. Chakraborty then decided to do movies only to be shot at Ooty and nearby locations and he provided discount rates to the film crew to stay in his hotel as well. This strategy paid off as numerous films starring Chakraborty were launched every week, so he shifted his focus from mainstream Hindi cinemas to low-budget movies.[7] Dalaal was released followed by other low-budget films such as Phool Aur Angaar, Ravan Raaj: A True Story and Shapath, which created a market for low-budget productions.[34]

Jallad won him the Filmfare Best Villain Award and Star Screen Award Best Villain for the year 1995. His economical film production was popular as Mithun's Dream Factory.[35][36][37][38][39] Even he could not do Mani Ratnam's Tamil film Iruvar as his character had to crop his hair, which would have affected his other 15 films at that time. By this time, Chakraborty held the record for appearing in the most Hindi films as a hero.[20] A third National Award followed in 1998, this time as the Best Supporting Actor, for his portrayal of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa in G. V. Iyer's Swami Vivekananda.[7] Once again, the overdose of Chakraborty releases affected the business as 1998 and 1999 itself had almost 30 releases.[20] Meantime, he paid more taxes than anyone else in the country in the mean period for 5 continuous years, from 1995 to 1999.[40][29][41] This decade proved Chakraborty as a businessman more than a star as low-budget filmmakers were given their due by Mithun. He operates hotels in Masinagudi and Ooty in Tamil Nadu, Mysore, Siliguri and Kolkata.[42] After his Bollywood career took a back seat, he concentrated more on Bengali films. He also appeared in Goutam Ghose's Gudia in 1999 as well as Rituparno Ghosh's Titli in 2002.

Since 2009, Chakraborty and Akshay Kumar have starred together in several films. Pictured above are (r - l) Kumar, Chakraborty and Riteish Deskmukh at a Karate event.

Mithun's Dream Factory films still continued to hold the audiences. He featured in Prasanta Bal's period drama Hindustani Sipahi (2002), based on veteran actor and dramatist Utpal Dutt's Bengali play Ferari Fauj.[43] Chakraborty also made a comeback to the mainstream Hindi film industry in 2005 with the film Elaan.[44] After a few supporting roles in films such as Lucky: No Time for Love (2005) and Dil Diya Hai (2006), he starred in Mani Ratnam's film Guru. He was also acclaimed for his villainous role in Kalpana Lajmi's Chingaari (2005).[7] His 2009 movie Zor Lagaa Ke...Haiya! won multiple International awards[45] and Chal Chalein was appreciated by critics for its bold theme. The critically acclaimed Phir Kabhi with Dimple Kapadia had a première through a direct to home (DTH) release in September 2009 and won as many as six awards in as many categories at the Los Angeles Reel Awards of 2009.

In 2006 he starred in the movie MLA Fatakeshto and its sequel Minister Fatakeshto in 2007 both of which were blockbusters. In 2008, he collaborated again with Buddhadeb Dasgupta for Kaalpurush and later appeared in films Shukno Lanka and Target: The Final Mission. His performances in Mrigaya, Tahader Katha, Kaalpurush and Titli won him National Film Awards and nominations. His debut Bhojpuri film Bhole Shankar is considered the biggest Bhojpuri film.[46] Similarly, his Odia film Ae Jugara Krushna Sudama in which he co-starred with Odia icon Uttam Mohanty was also a huge success.[47] The last Bengali hits for Chakraborty were Handa and Bhonda, Nobel Chor and Le Halwa Le.

Chakraborty's other films include Veer, (2010) with Salman Khan and Golmaal 3 (2010), with Ajay Devgn and in 2012, he did 3 films with Akshay Kumar, Housefull 2, OMG – Oh My God![20] and Khiladi 786. His home production Enemmy (2013) was with his son Mimoh Chakraborty and actor Sunil Shetty and he also did Anthony D'Souza's Boss (2013) with Akshay Kumar. Later in Subhash Ghai's Kaanchi... (2014), he played an evil politician wearing facial prosthetics that won him critical acclaim. Kick with Salman Khan earned more than ₹ 375 crore worldwide. Chakraborty also had Entertainment, Hawaizaada and Anil Sharma's Genius as other releases and in 2019, The Tashkent Files directed by Vivek Agnihotri became a sleeper hit.[48][49][50]

Chakraborty's Telugu film Gopala Gopala[51] with Daggubati Venkatesh, Shriya Saran, Pawan Kalyan, Bengali film Herogiri along with actor Dev[52] and Yagavarayinum Naa Kaakka, the Tamil film[53] and its Telugu version Malupu were released successfully along with Debaditya Bandopadhyay's Bengali film Naxal, while his long delayed film Ek Nadir Galpo: Tale of a River has been officially released and became a success at the box office.[54][55]

Chakraborty's Bengali film, the science fiction Jole Jongole was released in February 2017 and the long delayed Hason Raja[56][57] has been resumed with Chakraborty paired opposite Raima Sen. He has also made his Kannada debut with The Villain starring Shiva Rajkumar and Sudeep .[58]

The delayed horror film 12 'O' Clock directed by Ram Gopal Varma was released in January 2021.[59][60][61][62] Chakaraborty's first web series Bestseller for OTT platform Amazon Prime released on 18 February 2022.[63]

His latest film The Kashmir Files was released worldwide on 11 March 2022 and has been blockbuster at the box office.[64][65]