Biswajit Chatterjee – The romantic face of Bollywood 1960s

Biswajit Chatterjee – The Bengali actor who entered Bollywood cinema in the 1960s. He was the lovely and beautiful face of many hit romantic songs of both Mohammed Rafi and Hemant Kumar. Almost all his Bollywood songs of 1960s became super hits, and he also owns many hit films to his credit such as Kohra, Bees Saal Baad, Mere Sanam, Do Kali etc. Associated with suspense thrillers, Hemand da’s voice and music in the early phase of his Bollywood journey, with 1965 onwards Mohammed Rafi became his ghost voice and he got tagged as ‘romantic hero’ or ‘chocolate hero’ of Bollywood. Though he couldn’t earn name and fame as a great and talented actor of high potential, he created a niche of his own through his romantic roles and of course a bunch of lovely songs of 1960s. He made many of Rafi songs immortal onscreen through his sweet romantic image. He was also a successful film producer and director.

The hero with chocolate image in the 1960s

For his acting skills he has been heavily criticized then and now, and now also he is a prey to online reviews of classic era. Yet we can’t deny that almost all Bollywood songs filmed on him are timeless classics and still loved by music fans. Best instances are songs of Mere Sanam, Kismat, Bees Saal Baad, Kohra, Night In London, April Fool, Bin Badal Barsat, Yeh Raat Phir Na Aayegi, Do Kaliyan etc. Read about his career best Bollywood songs here. I have already done a nice compilation here. Among all heroines, his pairing with Mala Sinha, Asha Parekh and Waheeda Rehman remained most successful. He did multiple films with these actresses. Babita, Sharmila Tagore, Saira Banu and Rajshree are a few more.

Biswajit Chatterjee is best known for his songs than his performance and movies. In fact he was the musical hero of Bollywood 1960s. From action to comedy and from romance to family drama, he donned different kinds of roles onscreen. Biswajit was initially associated with Bengali theatre before he moved to big screen. ‘Mayamrig’ was his debut Bengali flick. He got into Bengali cinema when Uttam Kumar was ruling the screen. His stint in theatre gave him enough confidence to work in movies.

He did numerous radio plays and worked as a junior artist in theatre before taking acting as profession

He was born in Kolkata in 1936. His father was an army doctor. Because of his transferable job Biswajit grew up in different cities. He lost his mother at the age of 13. His father was initially reluctant to support his ambitions to become an actor and had his own reasons. He asked Biswajit if any girl will be willing to marry him, if he turned an actor. Though his father arranged his studies in military academy of Dehradun. When Biswajit didn’t agree to join studies, his father kicked him out of home. He stayed in a hotel and pursued his career.

He started his career through radio, and Birendra Krishna Badra was his mentor, who gave him lessons of voice modulation, as well as voice training. Popular actress Tripti Misra has appeared aside him in many radio plays those days for Akashvani. Later he became a junior artist for Kolkata-based theatre group, Bohurupee.

Supporting role in Bengali movie, Mayamriga gave him first big break as an actor

Maya Mriga was his first play, where he played a junior artist. He had just one-line dialogue in the play. Interestingly, after appearing in two more stage plays, he landed into the lead role of Maya Mriga, screen adaption of Bengali play which marked his stage debut. As a Bengali film actor, Mayamriga gave him first big break as an actor. Uttam Kumar was the lead hero. Dada Thakur released in 1957 was his first movie was an actor, and he played a supporting role in Chhabi Biswas starrer. 

From a young lad at a radio station to a junior artist of theatre, he transformed into a successful actor of both Hindi and Bengali cinema. In fact he learnt Urdu to improve his Hindi dialect and also learnt action. Later he relocated to Mumbai from Kolkata, where Hemant da gave him a break to Bollywood.

He was introduced to Bollywood by Hemant Kumar through his production venture, Bees Saal Baad in 1962. Hemant da was impressed by his performance in Bengali play, Saheb Biwi Aur Ghulam or Saheb Bibi Golam, where he enacted the role of Bhootnath. Since then he remained as one of the top romantic heroes for nearly one decade, with several evergreen romantic songs filmed on him. He earned early success through Bees Saal Baad, Mere Sanam, April Fool, Kohraa, Shehnai etc, though he was also blamed for his chocolate looks. However he managed to create a niche of his own, which was not familiar to Bollywood till then. When he turned busy in Bollywood, he stopped signing Bengali films.

Though he did several action oriented and comedy films, he always had a romantic image. Wonderful romantic songs filmed on him, mostly sung by Hemant Kumar and Mohammed Rafi too created that impact. When Rajesh Khanna stormed into the silver screen with a series of blockbusters in the early 1970s, he was one among those romantic heroes who lost their stand in Bollywood. As a film actor, Bees Saal Baad, Kohra, Mere Sanam, Night in London, Kismat and Do Kaliyan are his major hits.

Rekha starrer Shikar and the controversies

His kissing scene with Rekha in her debut film Shikar created a lot of controversies in the late 1960s. She was only a newcomer when Biswajeet forcibly kissed her in one of the film scenes during shooting without her permission. In those days onscreen kissing was banned in Indian cinema, and when its image appeared in the first page of Life magazine, obviously it created a lot of stir. The film was denied permission to release by censor board, and was later released after 10 years. Forgetting the indifferences Rekha later worked in Biswajeet’s production ventures such as Do Aankhein, Kehte Hain Mujhko Raja, Mehmaan etc.

Biswajit Chatterjee – Some interesting facts

1. He acted in more than 200 films mainly belonging to Hindi and Bengali languages. He has also acted in Oriya, Sindhi, Punjabi, Maithili and Bhojpuri language films, though a few.

2. Only a few know that Biswajit is a good singer who has done playback singing in Bengali cinema. But interestingly he didn’t render his voice to any of his Bollywood songs, for which he is known most. Now he is active with stage shows exclusively singing Rafi songs.

3. He frequently sang for H.M.V in Bengali language during his younger days, and has recorded Bengali songs composed by Usha Khanna and Salil Chaudhary.

4. He is still active in Bengali films doing supporting roles. He has completed 6 decades in film industry.

5. His children Prasenjit Chatterjee, Pallavi and Prima are well-known Bengali actors.

6. He had a brief public life as a politician. He unsuccessfully contested 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Delhi, representing Trinamool Congress.

7. His early hits were composed by Hemant Kumar, who rendered his voice as well. Most of those movies belong to suspense thriller genres, such as Bees Saal Baad, Kohra, Bin Badal Barsat etc.

8. O. P. Nayyar composed some of his career best songs for Biswajeet – Mere Sanam, Kismat and Yeh Raat Phir Na Aayegi being the best instances.

9. He is also known for that controversial kissing scene with Rekha for her first film, Do Shikar. The scene was shot without her permission who was a newcomer then, and she burst into tears when the actor didn’t leave her. She was facing the camera then while the whole crew was watching. The film was originally titled as ‘Anjana Safar’.

10. Apart from acting and playback singing he has produced a few Bollywood films.

11. Though he rarely worked in regional cinema, he watches good regional films occasionally. He owns a friendly relationship with filmmaker Priyadarshan and occasionally communicates with him through phone calls. Chemmeen, Chithram etc are some of his favourite Malayalam films.

12. His famous film, Kohra was shot at Kovalam in Kerala, which owns lovely beaches and coconut plantations. He returned to Kerala only most recently in 2018.

13. Though his song ‘Kajra Mohabbatwala’ from Kismat was well-appreciated, audience welcomed the song with wolf whistles at theatres. It can be said that the song did too well for him, and because of the chocolate hero roles he played onscreen, a magazine even went on to publish a column that Biswajit could achieve success if he sticks to similar kind of roles. Later the actor filed a suit against the magazine as well.

14. Most recently he played uncle to his daughter Prema Chatterjee for a psycho thriller, Adoorini in Bengali. 

15. Two mesmerizing Bollywood songs in Asha Bhosle’s songs composed by O. P. Nayyar were filmed on Biswajeet – Yeh Hai Reshmi Zulfon Ka and Aao Husoor Tumko. Interestingly both the songs have similar tunes, and the actresses try to woo and sedate Biswajeet in both these versions.

16. Retaining the original star cast of his controversial film Anjana Safar he made one film Kehta Hai Mujhko Raja in the year 1975. He also directed the film.

17. Impressed by one of his theatre acts, Guru Dutt offered him the title role in the iconic movie, Saheb Biwi Aur Ghulam. opposite Meena Kumari and Waheeda Rehman. But he was asked to sign 5-year contract. However Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Hemant Kumar asked him not to sign in 5-year contract which may ruin his career if things won’t go as he expected, and Hemant Kumar introduced him to Bollywood through Bees Saal Baad.

18. He was coached by the legendary actor Uttam Kumar for the Bengali play, Saheb Bibi Golam, soon afetr Biswajit shared screen space with Kumar in Mayamriga, and his appearance in the play gave him major break to Bollywood.

19. Though his father initially disproved his desire to join film industry and asked him to leave home, later he accepted his son’s talent when a film director complimented Biswajit’s acting skills and hard work.

20. Though he owns a romantic image on screen, during his initial days he faced a lot of difficulties to do those scenes. Gradually he learnt everything.

21. He married twice and a few years earlier his financial difficulties surfaced in the media in the early 2010s.

22. He was a trendsetter of drag act in Hindi cinema in the 1960s. Biwi Aur Makan was first one of this kind, followed by the iconic song, Kajra Mohabbatwala. Later many actors including Big B and Aamir Khan has done it on silver screen.

23. His debut Bollywood flick, Bees Saal Baad was a jubilee hit, while his next release Kohraa was a box office failure. Both these horror thrillers starred Waheeda Rehman in female lead, and Hemant Kumar was his ghost voice, who composed music tracks for both these movies.

24. He shares birthday with Showman Raj Kapoor.