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| May 26, 2005 | Thursday | Rabi-us-Sani 17, 1426 |
Sunil Dutt dead
MUMBAI, May 25: Bollywood’s first “angry young man” who later became a politician, Sunil Dutt, died of a heart attack on Wednesday at the age of 75. Mr Dutt, whose movie career spanned five decades, served as Sports Minister in India’s Congress-led government and represented a constituency in Mumbai, in parliament.
“He was admitted to the hospital last week. He had been keeping unwell for quite some time. He passed away this morning,” Congress party colleague K. Bastiwala told AFP.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi led an outpouring of tributes to Dutt from the political world and Bollywood.
“He was a true secularist and stood above everything else and was a good friend of the (Gandhi) family,” she said.
Mr Dutt was elected to parliament five times for the Congress party, first in 1984.
The outspoken defender of religious minorities, known for his work with slum-dwellers, was born on June 6, 1929, in the Jhelum district of Pakistan.
“He was a patriot and believed in helping weaker sections of the community,” said popular lyricist and scriptwriter Javed Akhtar.
Dutt and family became displaced refugees after the partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan at independence from Britain in 1947.
After a brief stint in the army, he became a radio announcer on Radio Sri Lanka. He began his movie career with the 1955 film “Railway Platform”. His real name was Balraj Dutt which he changed to Sunil Dutt when he started acting in films because another Bollywood actor had the same name.—AFP
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