Obituary: Sunil Dutt

The former Indian actor, film-maker and politician Sunil Dutt, who has died aged 75, commanded widespread respect for his social work and commitment to building harmony between Hindus and Muslims. He was catapulted to stardom in 1957 in the epic, Oscar-nominated movie Mother India, playing a rebel son who picks up a gun to win justice for his family. He later became a Congress politician and minister for sport and youth affairs. Dutt was born into a Hindu family in the Punjabi village of Khurd, now in Pakistan. His father died when he was five, and with the partition of India in 1947, his family became refugees at Ambala, in the northern Indian state of Haryana. He was educated at the Jai Hind College, Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Via his first job, producing Radio Ceylon programmes for an English advertising agency, he got the contacts which enabled him to break into the local film world. His movie debut was as the male lead in Railway Platform (1955). It was not a hit, but then came Mehboob Khan's Mother India, which also proved a personal landmark. While shooting a fire sequence, Dutt's glamorous co-star, Nargis, became trapped in piles of burning hay. In true romantic hero style, he rescued her, and they married soon after. She was a Muslim, and theirs was perhaps the first mixed-religion marriage in the Indian film industry. After Mother India, Dutt rode a wave of stardom. Never losing his Punjabi accent, he created an unpretentious style that appealed to the urban middle class. He reached his movie peak with Gumrah (Ashtray, 1963), Waqt (Time, 1963) and Humraaz (Confidante, 1967). He also proved himself a talented comic actor, playing a stupid lover in Padosan (Neighbour, 1965). Turning to producing, Dutt set up a production house, Ajanta Arts. His first film was a bandit drama, Mujhe Jeene Do (Let Me Live, 1963), in which he played the male lead. Next came his directorial debut, the offbeat Yaadein (Memories, 1964), featuring a single character, played by himself. The work was acclaimed by discerning audiences. Four other films followed. Then, tragedy struck. Dutt was about to launch his son, Sanjay, into the film business, with Rocky (1981), under his own direction, when his wife, Nargis, died of cancer. This took Dutt away from films, and he turned to social work and, eventually, politics. He also set up the Nargis Dutt Foundation to help cancer patients and the poor. Dutt was close to Indira Gandhi and her family, and was said to have supported the state of emergency she declared, as prime minister, in 1975. Later, he conceded that the emergency had been wrong in principle, but he was devastated when she lost the 1977 election. Sanjay also caused his father distress through being one of the 86 people accused of involvement in the 1993 bomb blasts in Mumbai, in which more than 250 people died. The case continues to this day, although Sanjay has always denied the charges. Dutt was back in Bollywood last year with Munna Bhai MBBS, in which he and Sanjay played father and son roles. He is survived by his son and two daughters. · Sunil Dutt, actor, film-maker, politician and social activist, born June 6 1929; died May 25 2005