Mithun Chakraborty or “dada” as he was lovingly called on the dancing show which he judged and which took the nation by storm of great dancers from all across the country – Dance India Dance.
Mithun Chakraborty, or our beloved Disco Dancer Dada, has his birthday on 16 July.
Mithun Da in “Dance India Dance”
Dance India Dance perhaps became the 2nd identity to the Chakraborty that had somewhat gone away from the limelight after glorious 35-40 years of contribution in Indian cinemas – the charm, wit and those disco moves (watch: Disco Dancer – I Am A Disco Dancer Zindagi Mera Gaana) were still very much present in Dada’s personality and DID gave Chakraborty the stage to showcase the same and a way back into people’s homes and hearts.
source: YT / Shemaroo
“Kya Baat”, this is what all dancers die to hear from Mithun Chakraborty
Mithun Chakraborty became famous for his tagline “kya baat, kya baat, kya baat”, which he narrated after any exemplary performance from a contestant, it became his “takia kalam”, something that is now associated with the Disco Dancer – it’s these little renditions that made Dada the perfect “master judge” along with 3 other judges, latter being full time professional dancers but it’s hard to argue that in spite of being an actor, Mithun Chakraborty was perhaps the first actor to really bring “dancing” into movies.
Did you know he was a wrestler?
It is peculiar to note that Chakraborty’s strength does not only limit to acting and dancing but he also has won West Bengal State Wrestling Championship (way back in 1967), which gives an indication into the Bengali babu’s extreme fitness keyset since a very young age and it was perhaps this agility that made him a great dance.
Russians love Mithun Chakraborty
Mithun Chakraborty was one of the few starting Indian actors to make a name for him in an outside country and no – this wasn’t through a Hollywood role but pretty much a Bollywood move that seized to amaze a country unknown i.e. the Soviet Union (now broken into small parts, of which Russia is also a part).
In 1984, Chakraborty’s Disco Dancer released in the USSR and he went there to promote the movie; the promotion worked so much so that nearly 61 mln people watched the movie and it was an instant hit with them – the Soviet Union fans emulated Chakraborty and he has become a cult icon in the broken parts of Soviet Union with people still copying his moves, generations later.
Personal life
The name of Chakraborty son is “Mimoh”, named after Michael Jackson and Mohammad Ali. Chakraborty is married to the famous Indian actress in Yogita Bali and has 4 children in total.
Chakraborty’s popularity in Bengal is felt through the fact that a comic book is named after the city icon, named “Jimmy Zhingchak”.
Rana Rej
Life was not always this charming for the star though and he had his fair share of failures and hardships. Before becoming an actor himself and rocking the world with his dance movies, Mithun assisted the Bollywood Diva and first all-out actress to work in industry as dancer i.e. Helen. Mithun Chakraborty at this time was not known by his name that we have familiarized ourselves with; he was known as “Rana Rej”.
It was during the assistance to Helen that Mithun came across a 2 minute break in the movie “Do Anjane”, playing Amitabh Bachchan’s neighbor. Little did he know at the time, the same Mithun Chakraborty worked as leading supporting actor to the same man in the cult classic “Agneepath” in his iconic role “Krishnan Iyer”.
We wish India’s first and only Dancing Superstar and actor in Mithun Chakraborty a very happy 67th birthday.