“I was never cut out for politics,” the indefatigable Mithun Chakraborty recently said. He is right. Some people are born into politics. Others find their way into the slush of present day politics.
Mithunda was sucked into a life of politics by his friend Mamata Banerjee, who incidentally never misses a film starring him. “Didi (Mamata) asked me to join and there was no away I could say no to her,” Mithunda shrugs.
But now, the versatile actor is looking at making a comeback into cinema. He has big banners to offer him juicy parts in high-profile films, offers that he is considering “very seriously”. Mithunda realizes his days of Disco Dancer and Gunmaster G9 are long gone. He is now looking at doing selected roles that suit his age. Would he be willing to play the hero’s father? “Why not? I have two grown-up sons in movies now. What’s there to hold me back from playing a father as long as the role is substantial?” the actor said.
Mithun’s brush with politics
Ultra-Left & Left Leaning
Mithun, was swayed by the extremist ideology on which the Naxalite movement was founded, much like thousands of other impressionable Bengali youth in the late 1960s. He later shifted to the political mainstream of the Left, maintaining close links with CPI (M)-led Bengal’s ruling dispensation of Jyoti Basu and Subhas Chakraborty. In 1986, he hosted a show to raise funds for CM’s flood relief, which had stalwarts like Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha in attendance.
In 2011, ‘Didi’ Mamata arrived and changed the political scene in West Bengal. Mithun met Mamata at Suchitra Sen’s funeral in 2014 and was offered a party ticket for Rajya Sabha.
‘Right’ turn?
In 2019, he visited the RSS headquarters at Nagpur to meet chief Mohan Bhagawat.
Joins BJP On March 7, 2021: He joined BJP ahead of PM Modi’s rally at Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata. He was not given a ticket to fight the poll, but became a star campaigner.
