Mithun Chakraborty, the eternal Disco Dancer of Bollywood celebrates his 73rd birthday today. The fantastic actor with three National Awards to his credit has done all types of roles in his career and proven his versatility time and again. From doing a supporting role in Agneepath and Ganga Jamunaa Saraswathi with Amitabh Bachchan to doing B-grade movies, Mithunda as he is fondly called had his share of misfortunes and successes but has still managed to maintain respect and dignity without much controversies.
Assistant to Helen
Helen is one of the best dancers ever to grace the Indian silver screen. Right from the start Mithun Chakraborty had a penchant for dancing and could dance very well. Hence during his struggling days, the actor used to work as an assistant to the star dancer and hoped that someone from the film industry sees him on the stage and give him a break. Those were the times when he did not know whether he would be able to feed himself today or not.
Bengali writers wrote books on him
His journey from a struggler to stardom intrigued many Bengali writers which inspired them to write books on him. To date, 5 books have been written in Bengali on Mithun da. These include Marbo Ekhane Lash Porbe Shoshane, Cinemay Naamte Hole, Mithuner Katha, Amar Nayikara, and Ananya Mithun.
Mithun has worked in Hindi and many regional movies
Apart from Hindi, he has also worked in regional movies like Bengali, Oriya, Punjabi, Telugu, and Bhojpuri. Overall the Pyaar Jhukta Nahin actor has worked in 350 plus movies.
Mithunda was termed miracle by industry
Mithun was highly successful initially. But he also gave a series of flops from 1993 to 1998. Almost 30 of his movies flopped consecutively in these years. However, he still had 12 unsigned movies and continued to maintain his foothold in the industry which is why he was called a miracle by the film critics and Bollywood.
Mithun founded CINTAA
Along with Dilip Kumar and Sunil Dutt, Mithun Chakraborty founded CINTAA, a body that supports actors in need in 1992. He has always shown eagerness to help and support the actors who are facing financial troubles.
First six-pack abs hero in Bollywood
The Disco Dancer fame actor was the first hero with six-pack abs in Bollywood. He inspired many other actors to maintain fitness and physique.
Maximum releases in a year
He holds the record for the maximum releases of movies as a hero in a year. In 1989, 19 movies by Mithun Chakraborty were released.