Mithun returns as Baba Sikandar : Bollywood News : ApunKaChoice.Com


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Mithun returns as Baba Sikandar
11th Jan 2005 10.30 IST
By ApunKaChoice Bureau

He ruled the box-office in the 1980s and early 90s, known as ‘Dancing Star’ and ‘poor man’s Amitabh’, but with three National Awards, he has created a niche for himself. And now Mithun Chakraborty returns to the big screen in a negative role in Vikram Bhatt ’s forthcoming film Elaan .

In the 'lavishly mounted' action film, which also features John Abraham , Arjun Rampal , Lara Dutta , Rahul Khanna and Amisha Patel , Mithun plays the role of an underworld don Baba Sikandar who runs an extortion racket and whose tentacles spread far across the globe.

Talking to reporters recently in New Delhi on a trip to promote Elaan, about his long absence from Hindi films and his reasons for taking up the film, Mithun says, ''for every actor, there comes a time when he feels that he has nothing left to achieve. It just happened with me that at one point I felt that I had stopped growing as an actor. Now, several years later, when Vikram approached me with this offer of a negative role in Elaan, it excited my curiosity.''

But Mithun hasn’t forgotten his humble beginnings. ''Life for me has been a struggle all through. All through my career, I have preferred to maintain a low profile. In fact, I consider myself fortunate that I have managed to keep afloat for so long,'' he adds humbly.

During his heydays, Mithun not only achieved a lot of commercial success but also tremendous critical acclaim (winning National Awards thrice), for his performances in his first film 'Mrigaya' as well as for Bengali films 'Tahader Katha' and 'Ramakrishna Paramhans'), Mithun's statement evidences the humility of one who has 'come up the hard way'.

It seems hard to believe that he is the same person who, in his heydays, earned a huge fan following as a 'dancing star', one who runs a parallel film industry from his South Indian abode of Ooty, is 'God' for a generation of audiences unaware of the Hrithik Roshans and the Sanjay Dutts of this world, who owns an entire chain of hotels in Ooty and one who, was the highest tax payer in the country for five consecutive years, from 1994 to 1999.