indian cinema heritage foundation

O P Dutta

Director
  • Born: 1922 (Gujranwala)
  • Died: 9 February, 2012 (Mumbai)
  • Primary Cinema: Hindi
  • Children: J P Dutta , Deepak Dutta
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Born in 1922 in Gujranwala, filmmaker-writer O P Dutta is often credited with making one of the first Indo-Pakistan films with Sheila Ramani in the lead with Anokhi (1956), which was shot in Karachi. Mostly remembered for writing his son J P Dutta's films, he was a successful filmmkaer in his own right. 

O P Dutta's career as a director began with the successful Suraiya starrer Pyar Ki Jeet (1948). Suraiya and O P Dutta reportedly became close to each other during the shoot. O P Dutta maintained throughout his life that Suraiya was the most singularly talented artiste he had worked with. Other films directed by him were Hamari Manzil (1949), Surajmukhi (1950), the Karan Dewan-Nalini Jaywant starrer Ek Nazar (1951), Parbat (1952), Malkin (1953), Lagan (1955), Hulare (1957), Aangan (1959) and Commercial Pilot Officer (1963). After a while, he became more interested in writing, mainly dialogues. He wrote for films like Sohrab Modi's 1958 remake of Jailor, the story for Biradari (1966), Chirag (1969) and Mastana (1970). His name did not feature in the credits of Do Raaste (1969) due to differences with the director Raj Khosla. When his son J P Dutta turned director, he wrote for most of his films like Ghulami (1985), Hathyar (1989), Kshatriya (1992), Border (1997), Refugee (2000) and LOC: Kargil (2003). He won the Filmfare Award for Best Dialogues for Refugee.

He was close to his son J P, especially after he was deeply affected by the passing of his other son Deepa Dutta, who served in the Indian Army and had fought in the 1971 war. After a prolonged struggle with illness, he passed away on 9 February, 2012 after a bout of pneumonia.  

References

Image courtesy: bollywooddirect.com