Utpal Dutt

Utpal Dutt

Indian actor, director, and writer-playwright (1929–1993)

Utpal Dutt was an Indian actor, director, and writer-playwright. He was primarily an actor in Bengali theatre, where he became a pioneering figure in Modern Indian theatre, when he founded the "Little Theatre Group" in 1949. This group enacted many English, Shakespearean and Brecht plays, in a period now known as the "Epic theatre" period, before it immersed itself completely in highly political and radical theatre. His plays became an apt vehicle for the expression of his Marxist ideologies, visible in socio-political plays such as Kallol (1965), Manusher Adhikar, Louha Manob (1964), Tiner Toloar and Maha-Bidroha. He also acted in over 100 Bengali and Hindi films in a career spanning 40 years, and remains most known for his roles in films such as Mrinal Sen’s Bhuvan Shome (1969), Satyajit Ray’s Agantuk (1991), Gautam Ghose’s Padma Nadir Majhi (1992) and Hrishikesh Mukherjee's breezy Hindi comedies such as Gol Maal (1979) and Rang Birangi (1983). He also did the role of a sculptor, Sir Digindra Narayan, in the episode Seemant Heera of Byomkesh Bakshi on Doordarshan in 1993, shortly before his death.

Filmography in the catalog

Credited on 6 films (1961–1979) — matched by name in the Creator or Credits field. Also mentioned in 2 other records (descriptions, transcriptions, copyright notes).

Year ▼ Title CreatorLengthFormatColorSound
1979 Gol Maal Hrishikesh Mukherjee 144 min Color
1977 Anand Ashram Shakti Samanta
1969 Bhuvan Shome Mrinal Sen 96 min B&W
1968 The Guru. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp 112 min 35mm Color sound
1965 Shakespeare Wallah James Ivory 120 min B&W
1961 Saptapadi Ajoy Kar 163 min