Casting Guru Dutt: Why Kollywood courted the brooding Bollywood romantic

Time of India

20-06-2025

Apart from his short lifespan of 39 years, filmmaker and actor
Guru Dutt
had this in common with the epochal Tamil poet Subrahmanya Bharati: like the latter, he received recognition and apotheosis only after his death.
Even as Bharati's seminal lines of poetry are eternally etched in the Tamil consciousness, the songs of Dutt's films project evergreen lyrical hues of great human significance.
Who can forget Pyaasa's anthemic refrain penned for Dutt by the incomparable
Sahir Ludhianvi
, 'Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye tho kya hai' (To what avail is personal victory in a world bereft of human values)?
More directly underscoring the Tamil literature connection of Dutt was his little-known fascination for the work of the prince-turned ascetic and poet, Ilango, and his urge to picturise his epic 'Silappadhikaram' with Waheeda Rehman playing the role of Madhavi, the other woman in the life of the epic's protagonist Kovalan, who suffered the tragic fate of decapitation for a crime he did not commit.
But that was not to be because of Dutt's untimely death in October 1964, either due to a deliberate or involuntary overdose of alcohol and sleeping pills.
Known as the grand master of romantic gloom and the alchemist who transformed commercial Hindi cinema's pedestrian formulas through his individualism, artistry, and vision, Dutt's reputation skyrocketed in the decades after his demise, with Time magazine listing his 'Pyaasa' (1958) among the hundred all-time great films of world cinema in 2005.
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In the early 1960s, consequent on the resounding failure of his ambitious 'Kaagaz Ke Phool', India's first cinemascope film in 1959, after the commercial and critical success of 'Pyaasa', Dutt became chary of directing films and preferred to essay roles rather than wield the megaphone, though there is speculation that he might have ghost-directed some parts of his successful film 'Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam' (1962), which he produced and played a significant role in.
It was at this point that South Indian film producers found it opportune to cast the famous but unassuming director-actor in their quickly made Hindi films based on proven regional language subjects. Guru Dutt too, tired of the tempests raging in his life, both because of his difficult relationship with his wife Geeta Dutt, as well as his growing attachment to Waheeda Rehman, whom he groomed as a heroine, found working in the efficient Kodambakkam studios to his liking.
The first South Indian Hindi film in which Guru Dutt played the male lead was 'Bahurani' (1963), which features a gutsy young wife standing up for her newly-wed, somewhat mentally challenged husband, against her violent brother-in-law. The film had been earlier made in Telugu as 'Ardhangi' (1955) and in Tamil as 'Pennin Perumai' (1956). In the Tamil version, Gemini Ganesan essayed the role played by Guru Dutt in the Hindi remake.
Guru Dutt was directed in the film by the veteran Telugu-Tamil filmmaker T Prakash Rao, who had such hits as Sivaji Ganesan's 'Uthamaputhiram' (1958) and MGR's 'Padagotti' (1964) to his credit. The film, however, did not make waves.
N Vasudeva Menon, an AVM studio manager who became a producer and studio owner himself, booked Guru Dutt for 'Bharosa' (1963), a remake of the Tamil 'Thedi Vandha Selvam' (1958), an ordinary film about a wronged hero with a golden heart.
It was a role in which Guru Dutt was comfortable, though the film did not have much to write home about.
The famous producer A L Srinivasan, known for his connections with Hindi film personalities and all-India film trade bodies, liked Dutt so much that he booked him for 'Suhagan' (1964), the Hindi remake of his own Tamil hit production, 'Sarada' (1962), which deals with a husband who can have physical relations with his wife only at the risk of dying.
Director K S Gopalakrishnan had been fearful of directing a filmmaker of Dutt's stature, but the latter put him at ease.
More than 'Suhagan', it was the time Dutt spent with Gopalakrishnan in his village, Malliyam, near Mayiladuthurai, that proved unforgettable. Gopalakrishnan's associate, the respected dramatist and writer Komal Swaminathan, recalled Dutt's easy manner and friendliness in his memoirs. Dutt would spend hours together in the hot sun angling for fish in a village tank. At a time when prohibition was being firmly implemented in Tamil Nadu, Dutt enjoyed potfuls of country toddy with the relish of sipping his favourite Chivas Regal!
After all this merriment, some in place, some out of place, Dutt's unexpected death came as a shock to the 'Suhagan' unit, and producer ALS had to release the film with the message, "I humbly dedicate this film to the everlasting memory of the late Shri Guru Dutt, my friend and your favourite". Commercial hype apart, Guru Dutt has proved to be one of the great favourites of world cinema.
(The writer is a Chennai-based journalist)