‘Mithun Chakraborty was insecure about his jutting teeth, dark skin’: Shabana Azmi recalls how her mother encouraged him to let go of inhibitions

She said, “Janki Kutir was a place where all kinds of strugglers were always coming, and whether it was Abba or Mummy, they were always encouraging. When I was straight out of the institute, a lot of my institute friends, who had no place to stay in Bombay, would come and stay with us. Some would be house guests, like Zarina Wahab and Kanwaljit Singh. But Mithun Chakraborty, let me tell you, was very conscious of the fact that he had jutting teeth, so he used to always smile (with his mouth closed). And he was also conscious of the fact that he had dark skin.”

She continued, “This, in spite of the fact that he had worked in the institute, and a lot of those insecurities had gone. But I really, really have to give it to my parents, particularly my mother, who encouraged him so much, and she made him drop his inhibitions. That was something I really appreciated.” Mithun himself spoke about his insecurities in an appearance on a reality show last year, when he said, “I never want anybody to go through what I have gone through in life. Everyone has seen struggles and fought through difficult days, but I was always called out for my skin colour. I have been disrespected for a lot of years because of my skin colour…”

Mithun emerged as one of the biggest stars of the 1980s, and is still remembered to this day for the global smash hit Disco Dancer. He made his debut with the film Mrigayaa, for which he won a National Film Award. He is also known for the films Sahhas, Wardat, Wanted, Boxer, Pyar Jhukta Nahin, Pyari Behna, Avinash, Dance Dance, and Prem Pratigyaa.