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In the year 1975, not only ‘Sholay’, many hit films were released. One of them was shy in the film, shy Tagore was the lead actress. This actress was Uttam Kumar, who is called the superstar of Bengali cinema. After this, he worked in ‘Anand Ashram’ with Rakesh Roshan.
Uttam Kumar, the film of ‘Mera Karam Mera Dharam’ of Dharmendra, who came in 1987, worked for the last time. The first face is remembered by Uttam Kumar as soon as Bangla cinema is named. He had to face many defeats at the beginning of his career. Not one or two of his films, but seven films flopped, at that time he was given the tag of ‘Flop Master General’.
But Uttam Kumar did not give up and made a comeback with firm and gave many great films. Today, he is not only known as Bangla, but in the history of Indian cinema as ‘Mahanayak’. Uttam Kumar’s real name is Arun Kumar Chatterjee.
Uttar Kumar was born on 3 September 1926 in Ahritola area of Kolkata. After studies, he worked in the Kolkata Port Trust, but the theater and acting hobby pulled him towards the stage. In 1948, he stepped into cinema with the film ‘Darshan’, but the film flopped. After this, six more consecutive films failed one after the other, due to which people started teasing him by calling him ‘flop master general’.
Despite all this, he did not give up and changed his luck by making a comeback with the 1952 film ‘Basu Parivar’. The film was a super hit at the box office and after that he never looked back. The 1966 film ‘Nayak’ brought his career to heights.
In ‘Nayak’, he played the role of a famous superstar Arindam Mukherjee. His character in the film shows the struggles going on within an actor, who himself was similar to Uttam’s real life. Director Satyajit Ray praised this film a lot. He said that Uttam Kumar is the only great hero. After this, the word ‘Mahanayak’ became the identity of Uttam Kumar. In this way, while removing the tag of ‘Flop Master General’ from him, he got the title of ‘Mahanayak’.
In Bengali cinema, the pair was most liked with his Suchitra Sen. He worked with Suchitra Sen in a total of 30 films including ‘Shareya Chhau Answer’, ‘Saptapadi’, ‘Amar Prem’, ‘Harano Sur’, of which 29 were hits. On this, Uttam Kumar himself admitted in an interview that if Suchitra Sen was not there, then he would never become Uttam Kumar.
After making a mark in Bangla films, he also made her debut in Hindi films. His most popular Hindi film was ‘Inhuman’ in 1975, in which his acting was highly appreciated. Directed by Shakti Samanta, this film was made in both Bengali and Hindi languages. Apart from this, he also worked in films like ‘Anand Ashram’, ‘Chhoti Meet’, and ‘Doyan’.
Uttam Kumar was awarded many big awards for his best performance. In 1967, he received the National Film Award for Best Actor for ‘Antony Firangi’ and ‘Chidiya’. In 2009, the Indian Postal Department issued a postage stamp in his honor. The name of Kolkata Metro Station was changed to his honor to ‘Mahanayak Uttam Kumar Metro Station’.
On 23 July 1980, Uttam Kumar suffered chest pain during the shooting of the film ‘Ogo Bodhu Shundori’. He himself drove the car and reached the hospital. Despite the treatment, on 24 July 1980 the next day at the age of 53, he said goodbye to the world.