Anik Dutta: The maverick leaves his mark with few films, sharp tongue

There is a telling anecdote about Anik Dutta, the celebrated Bengali filmmaker whose tragic death on Wednesday has shaken the regional film fraternity, which sums up the uncompromising nature of the man. Back in 2021, when Dutta was finalising the cast of Aparajito, the National Award-winning film inspired by Satyajit Ray’s journey to make Pather Panchali, the producer had already sold the OTT rights to a national entertainment network by pledging one of Tollywood’s A-listers in the lead role.

Dutta, an extremely finicky personality, was bowled over by the ‘look test’ of Jeetu Kamal — then a struggler — in the role of the iconic director and declared that he would make the film only if Jeetu played the lead. It was a tough call for all stakeholders, as it was an ambitious project set to be shot in black and white, and any wrong move in attempting what was arguably the first fictional film on Ray could have meant the sensitive Bengali audience would tear the director apart.

The rest, as they say, was history. Aparajito became Dutta’s biggest commercial success after his pathbreaking satire Bhooter Bhobisyat – his first foray in feature films in 2012 at a mature 52 after a successful career in ad films. It fetched the maverick director his only national award and made a star out of Jeetu, who was shellshocked to offer a reaction at the news of Dutta’s suicide. ‘’I am grateful to him for life, I have got nothing else to add,’’ the actor told the local media.

 An oeuvre of seven feature films, spread over a period of 14 years, cannot be called prolific by any stretch of imagination - but neither Dutta aspire to be one. ‘’It won’t really matter to humanity if I don’t make films anymore,’’ was his refrain during his appearances in interviews or chat shows – where he could be a combination of razor sharp wit, dripping sarcasm against the establishment and a self deprecatory humour. 

 A sworn Leftist who nevertheless came from a privileged background, Dutta’s ability to call a spade a spade has often landed him in trouble. The tipping point was when speaking in a public forum at the Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) in Nandan, he criticised the practice of installing huge billboards of the former chief minister Mamata Banerjee around the complex instead of celebrated filmmakers.

Such plainspeaking didn’t win him many friends among the powers that-be, what with his films often failing to secure a release at the Nandan complex while his sequel on his first feature: Bhobisyater Bhoot (Ghosts of the Future) not being able to get a commercial release. A diktat, which saw luminaries like the late Soumitra Chatterjee and Sabyasachi Chakraborty being part of street corner protests in the cultural hub of Kolkata.

It was, hence, poetic justice of sorts when Dutta’s mortal remains were brought to Nandan for cinema lovers to pay their last respects on Friday – before it made a detour of New Theatres Studio on way to his last journey. Tributes flowed for Dutta, whose last released film was Joto Kando Kolkataei (It all happens in Kolkata) in 2025, a mystery which had the inspiration of Ray written all over it in it’s title, treatment and use of puns.

Prasenjit Chatterjee, veteran actor and Padma Shri recipient, said he was still struggling to process the news of the 66-year-old’s death. Speaking to Zoom, he said: “I do not know what to say. I am not able to come to terms with the fact that Anik is no more and that too in such a manner. This is a huge loss for the Bengali film industry. I have still not been able to think normally since getting the news.

Pratim D. Gupta, a new age filmmaker, described the loss as a “devastating day” for Bengali cinema. In a social media post, he wrote, “He (Dutta) was one of the sharpest, most uncompromising filmmakers we had. In a business constantly driven by safe choices and market machinations, he genuinely didn’t care about playing the game. He spoke his mind, consequences be damned.”

 Dutta’s filmography

 Bhooter Bhobisyat (2012)

 Aschorjo Prodip (2013)

 Gang of Ghosts (2014, Hindi version of Bhooter Bhobisyat)

 Meghnad Badh Rahasya (2017)

 Bhobishyoter Bhoot (2019)

 Barunbabur Bondhu (2020)

 Aparajito (2022)

 Joto Kando Kolkataei (2025)